Ohio State Football: How three yards and a cloud of dust offense evolved

Soon after I began watching Ohio State football I learned the Woody Hayes’ offense was referred to as three yards and a cloud of dust.

The legendary Ohio State football coach loved the running game and was well-known for not thinking very highly of the forward pass. It was smash mouth football at its best.

I’m going to look at Woody’s great backs over the years and fortunately I had the privilege of watching several.  But I’m first going to look back at those I never saw play and see how the three yards and a cloud of dust offense evolved during his first decade at Ohio State.

Later in his career Woody was known to feature the fullback out of the strong T or full house backfield. However, I could only find one leading rusher listed as a fullback in the early years, but the head coach was known to put the ball in the hands of talented backs at any position.

Woody had a bunch of those guys during his first decade beginning with a player who won the Heisman Trophy the year before he arrived, Vic Janowicz. He led the team in rushing in 1951,  fullback John Hlay did in 1952 followed by Bobby Watkins the next year.

In 1954 Watkins led the team in scoring but Howard “Hopalong” Cassidy was the leading rusher and Woody won his first National Championship. Cassidy led the team in scoring and rushing the following year and won the Heisman Trophy.

Don Clark was the leading rusher the next two seasons and Ohio State won another championship in 1957. Then the offense appeared to have changed in 1958 when a fullback had an outstanding season.

Bob White led the team with 859 yards and 12 touchdowns. The following season wasn’t so good as he only rushed for 312 yards because sophomore Bob Ferguson was beginning his Hall of Fame career.

Ferguson rushed for 371 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per carry in 1959. He finished Woody’s first decade as the Ohio State football coach by rushing for 853 yards and 13 touchdowns.

With the big fullback returning for his senior year things looked promising as Woody was entering his second decade. It began with a bang and finished with one. I’ll look at those 10 years next.