Postgame Notes From No. 2 Ohio State vs. Youngstown State – Ohio State Buckeyes
8/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
No. 2/3 Ohio State 43, No. 12 (FCS) Youngstown State 0
Ohio Stadium
Columbus, Ohio
Aug. 30, 2008
Attendance: 105,011
Postgame Notes
The game kicked off the 119th season of football at The Ohio State University.
Overall, the Buckeyes are 413-126-14 as a Top 25 team.
The Buckeyes boast an all-time record of 380-105-20 in Ohio Stadium. Ohio State has won 19 of its last 20 home games.
Ohio State is 41-3 at Ohio Stadium since the start of the 2002 season. Its only defeats were to No. 17 Wisconsin in 2004, No. 2 Texas in 2005 and Illinois in 2007.
Jim Tressel’s record with the Buckeyes now is 74-16 and his career record is 209-73-2. Tressel’s 209 wins are tied for the third-most among active FBS coaches, matching Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer.
Ohio State now is 799-302-54 in its 119th season of play. The win total ranks fifth all-time in college football. With a win next week against Ohio University, Ohio State will become the fifth major college football program to reach 800 all-time wins.
The Buckeyes have scored at least one touchdown in 140-consecutive games.
The Buckeyes have won 30-consecutive season openers at Ohio Stadium. All-time, the Buckeyes are 103-12-4 in season openers and 107-8-4 all-time in home openers.
Jim Tressel has a career record of 17-5-1 in season openers and is 8-0 at Ohio State.
The Buckeyes boast an all-time record of 7-1 in games played in August.
SERIES NOTES
The game Saturday was the second meeting between the Buckeyes and the Penguins on the football field. Ohio State won the only other meeting last season, 38-6, in the 2007 opener for both teams.
Ohio State is 175-48-15 in its history against opponents from the state of Ohio. Ohio State has not lost to an Ohio opponent since 1921, falling to Oberlin 7-6. The Buckeyes tied Wooster 7-all in 1924 in Columbus.
OFFENSIVE NOTES
Ohio State scored on all six possessions in the first half – two touchdowns and four Ryan Pretorius FG’s – and on nine of 11 possessions overall.
Ohio State scored on its opening drive when Chris “Beanie” Wells scored untouched on a 43-yard dash up the middle on a 4th and 1 play. Ohio State scored on its opening drive in 10 of its 13 games in 2007. Wells’ last three touchdown runs have been 65 (vs. Michigan), 62 (vs. LSU) and 43 yards.
Wells ran 13 times for 111 yards – the 10th 100-yard game of his career. Wells left the game with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter with an injured foot.
Brian Robiskie has caught a pass in 25-consecutive regular-season games. In Robiskie’s last six games at Ohio Stadium, he has totaled 39 catches for 665 yards. Robiskie finished with three catches for 41 yards and a touchdown.
Todd Boeckman hooked up with Brian Hartline on a 47-yard completion in the first quarter, setting up a 29-yard FG by Ryan Pretorius to give Ohio State a 10-0 lead.
Boeckman completed 14-of-19 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns while sharing time with freshman Terrelle Pryor and red-shirt freshman Joe Bauserman.
Brian Hartline has caught at least one pass in 19-consecutive games. He caught two passes for 59 yards on the afternoon.
At the 6:52 mark of the first quarter, Terrelle Pryor made his Ohio State debut. On his first play he completed a 9-yard pass to freshman Lamaar Thomas. On that drive he took the Buckeyes 51 yards in 12 plays, capped off by a 31-yard FG by Pretorius.
Pryor finished 4-of-6 for 35 yards and rushed nine times for 52 yards. He scored his first touchdown as a Buckeye on an 18-yard run early in the fourth quarter. He also had a 21-yard run in the fourth.
Joe Bauserman saw his first collegiate action in the second quarter and competed his first pass to DeVier Posey in the fourth quarter. He finished the game 3-for-6 for 22 yards.
Freshman wide receiver DeVier Posey hauled in a 25-yard touchdown pass from Todd Boeckman on his first career reception in the third quarter. Lamaar Thomas caught his first collegiate pass from Pryor in the first quarter for 9 yards. He had a team-high 47 receiving yards on four catches vs. Youngstown State.
DEFENSIVE NOTES
Ohio State forced four Youngstown State punts and forced a fumble on its five offensive possessions of the first half. Three of the five YSU drives resulted in three and outs. Overall, Ohio State forced YSU to punt on 9 of its 12 possessions.
Ohio State’s defense allowed only 74 yards of offense. The Penguins were limited to -11 rushing yards on 21 attempts, the first time the Buckeye defense held an opponent to negative rushing yards since Cincinnati had -4 yards on 22 attempts Sept. 16, 2006.
Ohio State’s defense recorded the third shutout of the Jim Tressel era (2003 vs. Northwestern, 2006 vs. Minnesota). It is the first shutout in a season opener since beating Miami (Fla.), 10-0, in 1977. The defense has held the opposition to single-digits 31 times under coach Tressel.
Thaddeus Gibson recorded his second career sack in the second quarter – a 6-yard loss.
Playing in his first game since breaking his leg in the 2007 opener, Lawrence Wilson recorded his first sack since last year’s opener in the third quarter, a loss of 18 yards.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Senior kicker Ryan Pretorius connected on a career-high 4-of-4 FG’s on the afternoon, including a 51-yarder in the second quarter. His career long is 52 yards at Cincinnati in 2006. He connected on FG’s of 28, 31, 26 and 50 yards vs. the Penguins. It was the eighth time a Buckeye had four field goals in a game and the first since Josh Huston converted five attempts vs. Texas in 2005.
Pretorius has made three FG’s of 50 yards or more in his career.
Junior kicker Aaron Pettrey had a career-best 54-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. It was the fourth-longest filed goal made in Ohio Stadium history by a Buckeye.
Senior punter A.J. Trapasso was not called upon to punt at all. This no-punt game was the first since the team did not punt last year vs. Penn State.
MISCELLANEOUS
A crowd of 105,011 attended Saturday’s game – the 25th largest in Ohio Stadium history. Crowds of more than 100,000 have seen the last 42 games at Ohio Stadium.
Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Heacock is the older brother of Youngstown State head coach Jon Heacock. Jim, the 2007 Broyles Winner as the nation’s top assistant coach, is in his 13th season at Ohio State, while Jon is in his 15th year overall at YSU and eighth season as head coach, after taking over for Jim Tressel in 2001. Both Jim and Jon are Muskingum College graduates; their brother Jeff was the head coach at Muskingum for 26 seasons (1981-2006). Muskingum is a Division III athletics program located in New Concord, Ohio.
Ohio State senior cornerback Shaun Lane is the older brother of Youngstown State fullback Ben Lane. The brothers are natives of Hubbard, Ohio, and graduates of Hubbard High School. Their father, Garcia Lane, was a letterman for Ohio State from 1981-83 and is the only Buckeye to return two punts for touchdowns in the same game.
Ohio State’s honorary captain for the Youngstown State game was Andy Katzenmoyer, a three-year Buckeye letterman from 1996-98. He was the 1996 Football News and Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a three-time All-Big Ten selection. The Westerville, Ohio, native won the 1997 Butkus Award and was a consensus All-American his sophomore season. He was a first-round draft pick in 1998 by the New England Patriots before his professional career was cut short by injury.
Former Ohio State sports information director Marv Homan attended his 60th-consecutive home opener Saturday.
Saturday was alumni band day. A total of 650 played on the field and with 800 band alums in attendance overall. At halftime, the band formed four Script Ohios, with 192 members in each formation in the middle and 112 in each end zone.
YOUNGSTOWN STATE POSTGAME NOTES
Youngstown State is now 0-2 all-time against Ohio State.
YSU is now 7-1 when playing in the month of August.
YSU is now 19-22-1 all-time against Division I FBS schools.
A total of 10 Penguins made their first starts against Ohio State (QB Todd Rowan, WR Dominique Barnes, OG Eric Rodemoyer, NT Crispin Fernandez, SS Nick Gooden, FS Brandian Ross, DE Joel Younkins, LB Jordan Edwards, LB Na’eem Outler, LB Mike Barlak).
Youngstown State Junior Jaimie Frasure made his first career tackle a first-quarter sack of OSU freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor.
Junior Ben Nowicki set a career high with eight punts..
Youngstown State is now 6-2 in season openers under Jon Heacock.
The attendance of 105,011 is the second largest crowd to watch a Youngstown State football game. The largest crowd to watch a YSU game is105,038 at Ohio Stadium when YSU played Ohio State on Sept. 1, 2007.
Sophomore Luke Matelan recorded the first fumble recovered of his career.
YSU’s consecutive games scoring streak is snapped at 32. The last time YSU was shutout was a 41-0 loss to Pittsburgh in 2005. The last time YSU was shutout in a season opener was in a 22-0 loss to Dayton on Sept. 8, 1973.
YSU’s five first downs is the fewest single-game mark in school history. The previous low was, 7 against Eastern Kentucky in both 1980 and 1987.
