Ohio State Football: All Time Greats, The Post Woody Era.

Mike Vrabel was one of the most dominant defensive lineman ever to play at Ohio State. In his four seasons at defensive end Vrabel put up numbers that no Buckeye has come close to matching since. And he put up most of those statistics in a three year span.

From his sophomore season on, Vrabel was one of the best defensive ends in the country. In those three seasons he had 64 of his school record 66 tackles for loss. And 34 of those were quarterback sacks.

Vrabel’s junior season was his best statistically. In 1995 he increased his sack total from 12 to 13 and had 26 tackles for loss. For his effort he was selected as a first team All-American. He also won the Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Ten.

His senior season he registered another 9 sacks, made forty-eight tackles, 18 of them for a loss. Again Vrabel was voted a first team All-American and the Big Ten Defensive player of the year, only the second player to win the award twice.

He finished his career as the all time sack leader with 36, 8.5 more than Jason Simmons who was a senior when Vrabel was a freshman. And his tackles for loss record is 7 more than teammate Matt Finkes.

Mike Vrabel was selected to the Ohio State All Century Team and inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame. He was deserving of those honors, because he set the bar so high for defensive ends at Ohio State that no player has been able to touch it.

 Vrabel went on to a long and successful career in the NFL as an outside linebacker, inside linebacker and occasional tight end. He was on three Super Bowl winning teams with the New England Patriots, and was voted All-Pro following the 2007 season.

Then when his playing career ended he come back to Ohio State as a defensive line coach. He helped his buddy Luke Fickell right the ship at Ohio State, and stayed on to usher in the Urban Meyer Era.

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