All-Decade Ohio State Football Dream Team (2005-2015)
By Billy George
I recently started to make a YouTube highlight video of the all-time Ohio State football dream team. Included on that list were guys like Archie Griffin, Chris Spielman, Jack Tatum, John Hicks, Orlando Pace etc. As I was telling a younger (17-year-old) friend of mine about the list of guys I was going to put on the video, he hadn’t heard of half of the guys on the list.
That inspired me to make a more modern list of players. But in my book, one isn’t a “true” Buckeye fan until they’ve stuck with rooting for the scarlet and gray for about a decade. So for all of you true Buckeye fans, I present to you the all-decade Ohio State football dream team, presenting the best player at every position in that time frame. Let’s start with the quarterback position.
Quarterback: Troy Smith (2004-06)
Despite having a disappointing ending to his brilliant career (thanks to current Ohio State football head coach Urban Meyer whose 2006-07 Florida Gators destroyed the Buckeyes in the 2007 BCS National Championship) Troy Smith is not only the best quarterback in the last decade, he’s the best quarterback in Ohio State history.
According to stiffarmtrophy.com, the best way to analyze the biggest Heisman trophy winner of all time is to examine the points scored, as a percentage of points possible (number of Heisman voters times three). In Troy Smith’s Heisman trophy season (2006-07) he captured 91.63% of votes, gaining 2540 points. That’s the second greatest margin of votes in the history of college football, only one point shy of Reggie Bush’s 2541 points.
On top of obtaining college football’s most heralded award, Smith was a Michigan Wolverine killer, becoming the first Ohio State starting quarterback to ever win three games versus ‘that team up north’, and plowing up a whopping 1,051 yards versus them (more than anyone in college football history).
Smith led the team to two Big Ten titles and was 23-3 as the starting quarterback for the Buckeyes. In those 26 games he obtained a Heisman Trophy (2006), the Davey O’Brien, Walter Camp and Archie Griffin Award (2006), while also being named a Unanimous All-American, Fiesta Bowl MVP, the NCAA QB of the Year and the Associated Press Player of the Year (2006).
On top of all of that, his #10 jersey number is now retired at Ohio State.
Next: Ezekiel Elliott