God that 2006 rule where the clock starts after a change of possession (kick off/punt/to/etc) was probably one of the dumbest rules ever implemented. They changed that immediately the very next season after adding it lol. Watch Illinois have to scramble to run the lateral play at the end
I was at this game. Pittman didn't have a good game at all. I thought Illinois should have won this game for the Buckeyes proved they weren't a number 1 team. But happy the Buckeyes won.
I was there as well. Watching the game again, you can see how Illinois was blitzing almost the entire 2nd half. Linebackers up, corner blitz off the slot and safety blitz. Tressel went conservative because he saw that Illinois was struggling on offense, his defense was playing well and he wanted to run clock. In hindsight, he should have thrown more on 1st down, attacking the LBs and safeties more, by using the TE and/or slot, getting Pittman on a LB and with some deep throws to get Illinois to back up. Ohio State's offensive line struggled in the 2nd half, in part because the playcalling never got on a roll to loosen Illinois' defense up, Smith missed some passes stopping the clock. These struggles on offense would foreshadow what happened against Florida. The Buckeyes did play well in the 1st half, easily could have been 24-0 had Beanie Wells not dropped the football with the Buckeyes up 14-0 and driving in Illinois territory.
Ron Zook deserves credit for dramatically improving Illinois. They had a bad record in 2006 but they played tough. The Illini were HORRIBLE before Zook as Ron Turner's program totally collapsed. As a PSU fan back then, I remember that the Nittany Lions had defeated Illinois 63-10 the year before in Champaign and that score is nowhere near indicative of how bad Illinois was by comparison. To take OSU all 4 quarters just a year later in '06 was very impressive.
@@RM-ed1if Yeah, I read that somewhere where Illinois showed Florida how to shut down the OSU offense. The second half Illinois D just manhandled our offense.
Oof. Terrible second half: Tresselball at its worst. I guess the real story is Juice Williams would come back and get his revenge in 2007, knocking off #1 Ohio State, but then the buckeyes would still back into the NT game in a comedy of errors and get killed by LSU.
In fairness, even with the win over Ohio State, LSU gets my vote for one of the most undeserving national champs ever (along with a bunch of Saban teams that benefitted from Southern homer cult voting). EVEN AFTER WVU LOST TO PITT, WVU was *STILL* more deserving than LSU but LSU got homer voting to put them over the top. 2007 was a complete dumpster fire.
God that 2006 rule where the clock starts after a change of possession (kick off/punt/to/etc) was probably one of the dumbest rules ever implemented. They changed that immediately the very next season after adding it lol. Watch Illinois have to scramble to run the lateral play at the end
My head coach at Thomas more university is number 96 on the Dline for Illinois 💪🏽💪🏽
The 06 Buckeyes fizzled late in the season. The defense in one game. Both sides of the ball in finale.
Yup… Go Gators!
Could you please upload the full games? Me and my family would love watch these Buckeye classics!
3:06: this is what passed for creative offense in 2006, amazing
I was at this game. Pittman didn't have a good game at all. I thought Illinois should have won this game for the Buckeyes proved they weren't a number 1 team. But happy the Buckeyes won.
I was there as well. Watching the game again, you can see how Illinois was blitzing almost the entire 2nd half. Linebackers up, corner blitz off the slot and safety blitz.
Tressel went conservative because he saw that Illinois was struggling on offense, his defense was playing well and he wanted to run clock. In hindsight, he should have thrown more on 1st down, attacking the LBs and safeties more, by using the TE and/or slot, getting Pittman on a LB and with some deep throws to get Illinois to back up.
Ohio State's offensive line struggled in the 2nd half, in part because the playcalling never got on a roll to loosen Illinois' defense up, Smith missed some passes stopping the clock. These struggles on offense would foreshadow what happened against Florida.
The Buckeyes did play well in the 1st half, easily could have been 24-0 had Beanie Wells not dropped the football with the Buckeyes up 14-0 and driving in Illinois territory.
Ron Zook deserves credit for dramatically improving Illinois. They had a bad record in 2006 but they played tough.
The Illini were HORRIBLE before Zook as Ron Turner's program totally collapsed. As a PSU fan back then, I remember that the Nittany Lions had defeated Illinois 63-10 the year before in Champaign and that score is nowhere near indicative of how bad Illinois was by comparison. To take OSU all 4 quarters just a year later in '06 was very impressive.
@@RM-ed1if Yeah, I read that somewhere where Illinois showed Florida how to shut down the OSU offense. The second half Illinois D just manhandled our offense.
Oof. Terrible second half: Tresselball at its worst. I guess the real story is Juice Williams would come back and get his revenge in 2007, knocking off #1 Ohio State, but then the buckeyes would still back into the NT game in a comedy of errors and get killed by LSU.
I mean they got handily beat for sure. But killed? Idk it was only a 2 score game.
@@travissloan5296 I'll say "killed" just because LSU dominated after the 2nd Q; we were never a threat to win (within 2 scores) after that
In fairness, even with the win over Ohio State, LSU gets my vote for one of the most undeserving national champs ever (along with a bunch of Saban teams that benefitted from Southern homer cult voting). EVEN AFTER WVU LOST TO PITT, WVU was *STILL* more deserving than LSU but LSU got homer voting to put them over the top.
2007 was a complete dumpster fire.
@@aaronrider4051 yes it was but Ohio State should have capitalized after getting in the national title game. Could have beaten LSU but didnt.