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 withthe Buckeyes now is 58-13 and his career record is 193-70-2. He is45-4 at Ohio State when the Buckeyes score 24 or more points. UnderTressel, the Buckeyes now are 43-3 when leading at the half (28-3Saturday vs. Indiana) and 46-3 (38-3) when ahead after threequarters. Ohio State now is 783-300-53 in 116 seasons. The Buckeyeshave an all-time record of 371-104-20 in Ohio Stadium and have won10 straight, and 14 of their last 15, starts in the Horseshoe. TheBuckeyes have scored at least one touchdown in 121-consecutivegames. With the win Saturday vs. Indiana, the 2006 Ohio State teamis the 15th Buckeye squad to start a season 8-0. The last OSU teamto start 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. The outputis the fifth time this season Ohio State has topped 400 yards inoffense.
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 nowhas outscored its opponents 90-23 in the final period. Ohio Statewent 3-for-4 in the red zone Saturday, scoring three touchdowns.For the season, Ohio State is 29-of-35 in the red zone. Ohio Statehas scored at least 24 points in 15-consecutive games and toppedthe 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. Withhis four touchdown passes Saturday, Smith now has 21 TD throws forthe season. He is the third Ohio State quarterback to top 20 TDpasses in a season. Bobby Hoying (1992-95) holds the Ohio Staterecord with 29 in 1995 and Joe Germaine is second on the list with25 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 interceptionin his last 99 pass attempts. He misfired on his first four passattempts Saturday, but connected on his next 7-of-8 throws withthree touchdowns. Smith finished the first half with four TDpasses. He is the first Buckeye quarterback to account for four TDthrows in a half since Bobby Hoying (1992-95) tossed four scoringstrikes in a 48-14 victory over Purdue Oct. 22, 1994 in OhioStadium.
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 toRory Nicol in the third quarter. In his career, Ginn now has rushedfor a 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 yardsSaturday. He now has topped the 100-yard mark five times thisseason and 13 times in his career. Pittman’s streak of12-consecutive games with at least one touchdown was snappedSaturday. Freshman tight end Jake Ballard made his first careerstart Saturday. He also hauled in the first reception of hiscareer, a 1-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 Wellsfinished the game with 65 yards on 10 carries. He scored his thirdcareer touchdown in the second half. He has scored a TD in his lasttwo 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. TheBuckeyes have intercepted at least one opponent pass in all eightgames this season. With two picks Saturday, the Buckeyes now have15 interceptions on the season. The Buckeyes have forced 17turnovers (15 interceptions and two fumble recoveries) this season.Ohio State has turned those 15 turnovers into 73 points thisseason. 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. VernonGholston had one sack Saturday to up his season total to 5.5.Freshman defensive back Andre Amos recorded his first careerinterception Saturday. Sophomore defensive back Malcolm Jenkins hadhis third interception of the season Saturday. Quinn Pitcock nowhas nine tackles-for-loss this season, including a team-high sevensacks. His seven sacks total 40 yards in losses.
Special Teams
Ted Ginn Jr. had three punt returns Saturday of 10 or moreyards. His longest was 19 yards in the third quarter. Freshmanplace kicker Aaron Pettrey booted a 51-yard field goal in the thirdquarter. The kick is the longest of his career. Earlier this seasonvs. Cincinnati, Ryan Pretorius converted a 52-yard field goal.
Miscellaneous
The announced attendance Saturday was 105,267. That numberranks fifth all-time in Ohio Stadium history. Former BuckeyeAll-American punter and quarterback Tom Tupa (1984-87) served ashonorary 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 andrecovered by Jammie Kirlew, the first of his career in bothcategories. The Hoosiers have recovered a fumble on defense in sixstraight games and have recovered seven fumbles overall on theseason. Indiana has a takeaway in each of its eight games thisseason and has registered one in nine straight games overall datingback to 2005. Kellen Lewis posted his fourth straight game withoutan interception. 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. Truefreshmen 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 theleft side of the line for the second consecutive game for theHoosiers. This is the 15th time the Hoosiers have faced the No. 1team in the nation and the fifth time IU has faced Ohio State whenthe Buckeyes were ranked No. 1. Justin Frye recorded his 41stconsecutive start on the Hoosier offensive line, starting at centerfor the Hoosiers. Frye has played all five positions on the IUoffensive line in his career.
