Ohio State Football: Remembering Buckeyes’ 2014 National Championship

The lull of football in the spring is a beautiful time where many teams look at the potential of the upcoming year. The Ohio State football team was poised to have a great season so we now look back now at the last time the Buckeyes were National Champions.

Hopes were high for the Ohio State football team in the spring of 2014. Braxton Miller was a favorite to win the Heisman trophy, the Buckeyes had all the pieces necessary to make a deep run and expectations were high.

Then Miller went down with a season ending injury.

J.T. Barrett was asked to step into the starting role when very little people had heard of his name before. Hope had evaporated and statements like this found by Tyler Conway in Bleacher Report were common:

"“The Buckeyes go from title contender to third-best team in their conference in the blink of an eye.”"

Hope plummeted even further when Ohio State lost the second game of the season to Virginia Tech in Columbus. The Buckeyes hit a low point at being ranked only 23 in the AP poll and had almost the entire season ahead of them.

This is typically not the narrative that would start out a post about eventual National Champions, but the Buckeyes bounced back.

The rest of the season there were close games against Penn State and Minnesota, but otherwise most games were won convincingly. Coming into the Michigan game, Barrett was even being considered as a Heisman hopeful.

Then the worst happened with Barrett going down during The Game.

Ohio State entered the Big Ten Championship starting the third string quarterback and trailing multiple teams in the College Football Playoff rankings. And then the world was introduced to 12-gauge.

Cardale Jones propels Ohio State to an absolute obliteration of Wisconsin and secureed the fourth and final playoff spot.

Ezekiel Elliott was the biggest reason for success during this magical run for the Buckeyes. Zeke rushed for 220, 230 and 246 yards per game against Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon respectively.

Perhaps the top play for Ohio State in recent memory is his 85 yard run through the heart of the south that put sealed the win over Alabama.

After a tense game against the Crimson Tide, Ohio State controlled Oregon for most of the game. Despite a touchdown on the first drive of the game, and Oregon bringing the game to 1 point in the third quarter, the Buckeyes rolled.

Giving up four turnovers and still winning by three scores showed the kind of dominance Ohio State had throughout the competition.

A season that had a rocky start ended with the ultimate joy in Columbus. What is your fondest memory of the 2014 National Champion season?