Postgame Notes From No. 1/1 Ohio State vs. Indiana – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 21, 2006
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Attendance: 105,267
Ohio State Postgame Notes
Ohio State extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 15games. The current streak, which began last year against MichiganState, ranks third all-time at Ohio State.
The Buckeyes have scored at least 24 points in each contest during the streak.
Ohio State’s longest win streaks
| No. | Year(s) |
| 22 | 1967-69 |
| 19 | 2002-03 |
| 15 | 2005-06 |
| 14 | 1899-00 |
Ohio State now is 59-8-1 when ranked as the nation’s No. 1team. Overall, the Buckeyes are 291-68-9 when carrying a Top 10ranking and 398-123-14 as a Top 25 team.
Jim Tressel’s record with the Buckeyes now is 58-13 and hiscareer record is 193-70-2. He is 45-4 at Ohio State when theBuckeyes score 24 or more points.
Under Tressel, the Buckeyes now are 43-3 when leading at thehalf (28-3 Saturday vs. Indiana) and 46-3 (38-3) when ahead afterthree quarters.
Ohio State now is 783-300-53 in 116 seasons.
The Buckeyes have an all-time record of 371-104-20 in OhioStadium and have won 10 straight, and 14 of their last 15, startsin the Horseshoe.
The Buckeyes have scored at least one touchdown in121-consecutive games.
With the win Saturday vs. Indiana, the 2006 Ohio State team isthe 15th Buckeye squad to start a season 8-0. The last OSU team tostart 8-0 was the 2002 National Championship unit that finished14-0.
Series Notes
With the win Saturday, Ohio State leads the all-time serieswith Indiana 65-12-5 and has a 42-10-4 edge when the teams meet inColumbus. The Buckeyes have won 14 straight vs. the Hoosiers sincea 41-7 loss in 1988 in Bloomington. The Buckeyes have put togetherseveral winning streaks during the series, the longest of which wasa 23-game stretch between 1960 and 1986. That streak ended in 1987,but since then OSU has won seven straight in Columbus.
Jim Tressel is 6-0 against the Hoosiers.
Ohio State owns an all-time Big Ten record of 431-187-28 in 94seasons of league competition. The Buckeyes are 34-10 in conferenceplay under Tressel.
Offensive Notes
The 44 points Saturday vs. the Hoosiers marks a season high.
The Buckeyes totaled a season-high 540 yards Saturday. Theoutput is the fifth time this season Ohio State has topped 400yards in offense.
The last time Ohio State gained 500-plus yards was vs. Illinois last season, when the Buckeyes totaled 517 yards Nov. 11.
The Buckeyes averaged 8.4 yards per play Saturday vs. Indiana’s2.6.
The Buckeyes ran for a season-best 270 yards Saturday on 39attempts. Three Buckeyes gained at least 60 yards on the ground.
Eight Buckeyes caught at least one pass Saturday.
Ohio State now has outscored its opponents 90-23 in the finalperiod.
Ohio State went 3-for-4 in the red zone Saturday, scoring threetouchdowns. For the season, Ohio State is 29-of-35 in the red zone.
Ohio State has scored at least 24 points in 15-consecutivegames and topped the 35-point mark in six contests this season.
Offensive Player Notes
Senior quarterback Troy Smith threw a 23-yard touchdown pass toRory Nicol in the first quarter Saturday. Smith has thrown at leastone TD pass in 14 of his last 15 games. For his career, Smith has45 TD throws and is among a list of only four Buckeyes to accountfor 40 or more TDs through the air: Art Schlichter (50 from1978-81), Joe Germaine (56 from 1996-98) and Bobby Hoying (57 from1992-95) all had 50 or more TD passes in their OSU careers.
With his four touchdown passes Saturday, Smith now has 21 TDthrows for the season. He is the third Ohio State quarterback totop 20 TD passes in a season. Bobby Hoying (1992-95) holds the OhioState record with 29 in 1995 and Joe Germaine is second on the listwith 25 in 1998.
Smith now has 14 career games with multiple touchdown passes, including seven this season. He has four games of three or more TD throws this season.
In his last four games, Smith has tossed 13 touchdowns, including four against Iowa. Smith has at least two TD passes in seven of his last eight games. He also had three TD throws earlier this season against Northern Illinois.
Smith finished 15-for-23 Saturday for 220 yards, marking the12th time in his career and the fifth time this season he hasthrown for 200 or more yards.
Smith has not thrown an interception in his last 99 passattempts. He misfired on his first four pass attempts Saturday, butconnected on his next 7-of-8 throws with three touchdowns.
Smith finished the first half with four TD passes. He is thefirst Buckeye quarterback to account for four TD throws in a halfsince Bobby Hoying (1992-95) tossed four scoring strikes in a 48-14victory over Purdue Oct. 22, 1994 in Ohio Stadium.
All four of Smith’s TD throws in the first half went to different receivers.
Smith had 38 yard rushing Saturday. Added to his 220 passing,he now has 5,983 yards in total offense for his career. MikeTomczak (1981-83) is sixth on the list with 6,015 career yards.
Smith’s 29-yard rush in first quarter was his second longest this season. He had a 34-yard run against Penn State.
With the win Saturday, Smith moved to 21-2 as startingquarterback. That mark includes a 9-1 record against rankedopponents.
Receiver Ted Ginn Jr. threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to RoryNicol in the third quarter. In his career, Ginn now has rushed fora touchdown, caught 13 TD passes, returned a kick return for ascore and has six career punt returns for TDs.
Ginn (5 rec., 72 yards) has caught at least one pass in 27-consecutive games (beginning with Iowa in 2004) and has multiple catches in 25-consecutive games. He hauled in his 13th career touchdown pass in the first quarter Saturday, tying former Buckeye Dimitrious Stanley for ninth all-time at OSU.
Ginn is eighth all-time on the OSU receiving list with 117 receptions. The No. 7 spot belongs to tight end John Frank (1980-83) with 121 receptions. Ginn also ranks 12th in career receiving yards with 1,679, for an average of 15.0 yards per reception.
Anthony Gonzalez caught four balls Saturday for 69 yards. Henow has 38 catches on the year with 33 of those receptionsresulting in first downs. All four catches by Gonzalez Saturdaywent for first downs.
Antonio Pittman rushed 16 times for 105 yards Saturday. He nowhas topped the 100-yard mark five times this season and 13 times inhis career. Pittman’s streak of 12-consecutive games with at leastone touchdown was snapped Saturday.
Freshman tight end Jake Ballard made his first career startSaturday. He also hauled in the first reception of his career, a1-yard touchdown catch from Smith in the second quarter.
Rory Nicol’s TD catch in the first quarter was the third of hiscareer and second this season. Nicol has caught TD passes at Iowain 2004 and ’06. He added his second touchdown of the day on a38-yard pass from Ginn.
Nicol finished the game with a career-best 61 yards receiving on two grabs.
Sophomore running back Maurice Wells ripped off a 32-yard runthe fourth quarter to mark the longest gain of his career. Hisprevious best was a 25-yard run last season. Wells gained a totalof 62 yards on nine carries Saturday.
Freshman tailback Chris Wells finished the game with 65 yardson 10 carries. He scored his third career touchdown in the secondhalf. He has scored a TD in his last two games.
Defensive Notes
The Ohio State defense held its seventh opponent to just onetouchdown this season Saturday.
Ohio State has allowed just two rushing touchdowns in 2006.
The Buckeyes held Indiana’s top receiver James Hardy to sixreceptions and 45 yards Saturday. At halftime, Hardy had one catchfor six yards. Hardy had a total of 13 catches for 171 yards andthree TDs in his previous two games vs. Illinois and Iowa.
The Buckeyes have intercepted at least one opponent pass in alleight games this season. With two picks Saturday, the Buckeyes nowhave 15 interceptions on the season.
The Buckeyes have forced 17 turnovers (15 interceptions and twofumble recoveries) this season. Ohio State has turned those 15turnovers into 73 points this season.
IU was 7-for-15 on third-down conversions Saturday. For theseason, Ohio State has held opponents to just 32-of-104 onthird-down conversions.
Defensive Player Notes
Antonio Smith recorded his first career sack Saturday in thesecond quarter. He finished the game with a career-best 12 tackles,including 11 solo stops. He also had four tackles-for-loss for 22yards.
The 11 solo tackles are the most by a Buckeye this season.
Jay Richardson had a career-high two sacks Saturday.
Vernon Gholston had one sack Saturday to up his season total to5.5.
Freshman defensive back Andre Amos recorded his first careerinterception Saturday.
Sophomore defensive back Malcolm Jenkins had his thirdinterception of the season Saturday.
Quinn Pitcock now has nine tackles-for-loss this season,including a team-high seven sacks. His seven sacks total 40 yardsin losses.
Special Teams
Ted Ginn Jr. had three punt returns Saturday of 10 or moreyards. His longest was 19 yards in the third quarter.
Freshman place kicker Aaron Pettrey booted a 51-yard field goalin the third quarter. The kick is the longest of his career.Earlier this season vs. Cincinnati, Ryan Pretorius converted a52-yard field goal.
Miscellaneous
The announced attendance Saturday was 105,267. That numberranks fifth all-time in Ohio Stadium history.
Former Buckeye All-American punter and quarterback Tom Tupa(1984-87) served as honorary captain Saturday.
Indiana Game Notes
Austin Starr’s 33-yard field goal in the first quarter improvedthe sophomore to 8-of-10 on the season and 4-of-5 from 30 yards andbeyond.
Troy Smith’s third-quarter fumble was both forced and recoveredby Jammie Kirlew, the first of his career in both categories. TheHoosiers have recovered a fumble on defense in six straight gamesand have recovered seven fumbles overall on the season.
Indiana has a takeaway in each of its eight games this seasonand has registered one in nine straight games overall dating backto 2005.
Kellen Lewis posted his fourth straight game without aninterception. He has now gone 121 passes since his last pick. Heentered the game with the third-longest streak in the nation,trailing Houston’s Kevin Kolb and Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn.
True freshmen Matt Mayberry and Mandela Roberts each recordedcareer-highs with eight and five tackles, respectively, in thecontest.
True freshmen Rodger Saffold and Pete Saxon started on the leftside of the line for the second consecutive game for the Hoosiers.
This is the 15th time the Hoosiers have faced the No. 1 team inthe nation and the fifth time IU has faced Ohio State when theBuckeyes were ranked No. 1.
Justin Frye recorded his 41st consecutive start on the Hoosieroffensive line, starting at center for the Hoosiers. Frye hasplayed all five positions on the IU offensive line in his career.
