Football
Illini Victory Dance Still a Stinging Memory for Buckeyes
By John PorentasIt's a big deal when a program on the rise can upset the number-one team in the country. It's an even bigger deal when they can do it on the road.
That's exactly what happened in 2007 when the resurgent and 7-3 Fighting Illini came into Ohio Stadium and handed a 28-21 loss to No. 1 and undefeated Ohio State in Ohio Stadium.
To say the Illini were happy when the game ended would be an understatement.
To say the Buckeyes were unhappy would be an even bigger understatement.
The win left the Illini and their faithful who had journeyed to Columbus for that game euphoric, so much so that they actually enjoyed a little doe-see-doe on Ohio Field at the end of the game, a bit of fancy-stepping dancing on the OSU Block-O logo at midfield. The post-game revelry rubbed some of the Buckeyes still on the field wrong, very wrong, and some pushing and shoving ensued as OSU players tried to move the dance party to a more private venue. It was borderline ugly.
Common wisdom has it that the best way to expunge a bad memory that involves a bad loss is to beat the team that handed you that loss as soon as possible. The Buckeyes did just that in 2008 when they traveled to Illinois and topped the Illini 30-20 behind 143 yards rushing by Beanie Wells and another 110 yards rushing by Terrelle Pryor. Memory of 2007 loss expunged, right?
Wrong, that loss in 2007 is still bothering the Buckeyes.
"Bad memories," said OSU linebacker Austin Spitler when asked his recollection of the game. "I remember them dancing on the Block O in Ohio Stadium. It just wasn't fun."
The loss in 2007 has its obvious special quality for the players who were on the that OSU team, so special that the win in 2008 has failed to salve the wound suffered in 2007. The Buckeyes were knocked from the ranks of the undefeated and apparently knocked out of a possible BCS championship game berth with just one game remaining on their schedule, a trip to Ann Arbor. What is mystifying is that the way things worked out, OSU won against Michigan and still ended up in the BCS national championship game against LSU. So why the long-standing open wound over that loss to Illinois? For starters, it's where the loss took place, Ohio Stadium.
"Anytime you see a team come into our stadium and beat us it really kind of hurts us when it happens," explained OSU junior offensive lineman Bryant Browning. "
"Just the feeling of a loss at home," agreed senior defensive back Chimdi Chekwa. "Just like Penn State last year, you never feel good when you lose in the Shoe."
That's an obvious one, but there were a couple of other things that just have to be still rankling the Buckeyes about that loss in 2007, among them their defensive performance against the hero of the game, Juice Williams, and their defensive performance against the guy who was really the star of that Illinois team, Rashard Mendenhall.
Mendenhall led the Big Ten in rushing in 2007, and the OSU defensive game plan was predicated on the premise that if you took away Mendenhall Juice Williams could not beat you with his arm. OSU did a credible job of controlling Mendenhall, limiting him to 88 net yards on 26 carries. It was a job well done, but yet they went down to defeat when Williams threw four touchdown passes to account for all of Illinois' scoring, then added 70 more rushing, many of those rushing yards coming in the fourth quarter when the Illini held the ball for almost 14 minutes while clinging to a one-touchdown lead. The Buckeyes had executed the defensive game plan with respect to Mendenhall but still lost the game when they fell asleep on Williams.
"Two years ago we let Juice run the ball a lot," said Chekwa.
What galls Chekwa and his defensive teammates to this day are the busted defensive assignments that allowed Williams to enjoy that success, particularly in the fourth quarter when his running was instrumental in Illinois' ability to control the football and salt away the game. OSU's offense had just one possession in the fourth quarter, a three-play drive that ended in an interception.
"The thing that happened two years ago, we had guys out of position, guys that were supposed to be in a certain area of the field weren't there," Chekwa said.
"We bit on some fakes and some things like that."
The Buckeye defense still has not forgotten that night despite the win in 2008, As for the offense, it too has some bad memories of that game. Leading up to the Illinois game OSU quarterback Todd Boeckman had thrown two or more touchdown passes in every contest. He was the league-leader in passing efficiency and was ranked third in the nation in that statistic. Against the Illini he threw no touchdown passes, but did throw three interceptions, all of which impacted the eventual outcome in what was clearly his worst game of the season. Like their defensive counterparts, the OSU offense felt as if it simply had not played well, yet were still within a single score when the game ended. It was a downright crummy way to lose any game. To lose an undefeated season and number one ranking because of it made that loss all the more difficult to stomach.
And then there was, of course, the dancing. To this day it is a vivid memory after such a bitter defeat, one that the OSU coaching staff is making sure that the Buckeyes have fresh in their recollection.
"We still have those thoughts in the back of our heads because it was such a huge loss. It just really hit us," said Spitler.
"We look at it at team meetings now. That's the headline poster, them dancing on our Block-O and all their fans down there dancing with them."
You get the feeling that the Buckeyes want no repeat of that boogie when the Illini come to Ohio Stadium this weekend.
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