This day in Ohio State history: Buckeyes escape a scare vs. Louisville in 1992

COLUMBUS, Ohio — John Cooper had to call me back. I had just hung up with the 83-year-old former Ohio State coach a few minutes earlier after discussing a game that happened 28 years ago. He was struck by another thought and rang me up again.

“That Louisville game put ‘Big Daddy’ on the map,” Cooper said. “He made himself some money that day.”

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Interestingly enough, that was Jeff Brohm’s first recollection, too. How could it not be?

Dan “Big Daddy” Wilkinson was a relative unknown coming into this game. The redshirt freshman defensive tackle didn’t start Ohio State’s 1992 opener against Louisville, but he ended it. By the conclusion of that season, he was a household name on his way to becoming the No. 1 pick in the 1994 NFL Draft. On this particular day, he helped the Buckeyes avoid disaster.

“I do remember that play exactly,” Brohm, then Louisville’s quarterback and now the head coach at Purdue, said this week. “We were under center, and our right guard blocked out, let Big Daddy come right through untouched. I had to scramble to the left, throw off-balance, and I overthrew the receiver. That lost us the game.”

Due to the Big Ten’s decision to postpone the 2020 season, there might not be a live Ohio State game on TV for a while. Saturdays won’t feel the same for the many who live and breathe Buckeyes football. To help distract from that, and maybe insert some good vibes into an otherwise empty fall, we’re going to highlight the best games the program has ever played on the days it was supposed to play this season. We’re using the 12 dates from the original schedule, starting with Sept. 5.

Had Wilkinson not shot through the line and immediately chased down Brohm, if Brohm had just an extra half-second to process what was happening, it’s likely this game goes down as one of Louisville’s best wins and OSU’s most frustrating losses. Instead, the two-point conversion pass landed harmlessly on the Ohio Stadium grass with 33 seconds left and Ohio State escaped with a 20-19 win.

“Big Daddy was right in that quarterback’s face,” Cooper said. “As I recall it never was close. He was all over the quarterback.”

You can watch the game in its entirety on YouTube.

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Cooper’s best seasons were a few years later. He was 27-18-2 as Ohio State’s head coach — and perhaps more important, winless against Michigan — entering his fifth season in Columbus in 1992. Starting the following season, he’d win 10 games or more in five of the next six years. But entering this game, there was some doubt about where exactly things were headed under the man who replaced Earle Bruce. Cooper was fresh off signing a three-year contract extension. A season-opening loss to Louisville likely would have cast doubt on that decision.

The game marked two notable returns. Brohm, who broke a leg in a game exactly one year earlier and missed the rest of the 1991 season, was back as Louisville’s starting quarterback. Ohio State running back Robert Smith, who sat out the 1991 season after a disagreement with an assistant coach over academics, returned to the team in 1992. He received a standing ovation on his first carry of the game, a 7-yard gain through the middle of Louisville’s defense.

Neither team had a particularly difficult time moving the ball. Both offenses approached 400 total yards and averaged 6 yards per play. The Buckeyes were snakebitten by a couple of Kirk Herbstreit interceptions and a lost fumble. Louisville had it worse, missing a field goal attempt on its opening drive and then having an extra-point attempt blocked by Ohio State linebacker Steve Tovar just before halftime — four points that would loom large in the deciding moments.

There were notable big plays: Joey Galloway gave the Buckeyes their first touchdown on a 50-yard run off a reverse, slipping a tackle in the backfield and then zooming past a couple of Louisville defensive backs. Wilkinson made a tackle for loss in the first half when he shot into the backfield in a blur and nearly stole the ball from the running back before it was handed off. Brohm was sacked once and chased all game, but he also delivered some big-time throws, most notably a 58-yard completion to Aaron Bailey to set up the Cardinals’ touchdown just before the half.

Louisville running back Ralph Dawkins was explosive, rushing for 125 yards on 19 carries. Ohio State’s rushing attack was as effective in a committee approach. Smith got the early work in place of the injured Raymont Harris, carrying 11 times for 56 yards before exiting in the third quarter with bruised ribs. Fullback Jeff Cothran carried 13 times for 52 yards and a touchdown. Then-freshman fullback Eddie George carried once for 3 yards. Later, it was junior Butler By’not’e, forced into the featured tailback role after Smith’s injury, who carried six times and gained 13 yards on a screen play on the drive that ended with a field goal that ended up being the difference.

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“Butler was a good, solid back,” Cooper said. “He could catch the ball coming out of the backfield, decent blocker. He wasn’t as talented as Eddie, Robert Smith, some of the other guys we had, but he was a solid back.”

He was as good as OSU needed him to be on this day.

Brohm helped engineer the potential winning drive, completing a 16-yard pass to Reggie Ferguson on third-and-10 and later rushing for a conversion on third-and-9 that set up Dawkins for a 2-yard touchdown run with 33 seconds left. If not for the missed field goal on the opening drive, Louisville would have won the game there. If not for Tovar’s blocked extra point in the first half, Louisville would have simply needed to kick for the win.

“There was no overtime,” Brohm said. “You either go for the tie or you go for the win.”

There was no doubt what head coach Howard Schnellenberger would do. Schnellenberger grew up in Kentucky. He was back home coaching Louisville, hoping to revive a struggling program just as he did at Miami a decade earlier. Schnellenberger won a national title with the Hurricanes in 1983. Coincidentally, Cooper said he was offered and turned down the chance to be Schnellenberger’s successor in 1984, a job that went to Jimmy Johnson. It’s interesting to think how Cooper’s decision could have created a very different scenario on Sept. 5, 1992. But instead, there was Cooper at Ohio State, hoping Schnellenberger’s aggressive Louisville would come up short in its upset bid.

“He was a very confident guy,” Brohm said of Schnellenberger. “He wanted to build this program up, and he’s the reason that Louisville is where it’s at as a program today. We kind of played confident. We played with some swagger. When we took the field, all of our guys felt like we had a chance to win. We were right there, and could have done something special.”

Louisville drew up a play for Dawkins on a shallow cross. It worked. He was open.

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It’s just that Wilkinson never gave Brohm the chance to throw.

Louisville had one final scare for the Buckeyes, though. An onside kick was initially recovered by Cardinals safety Ray Buchanan but was whistled back for illegal touching. Replay showed Buchanan recovered the ball a step or two before it carried the necessary 10 yards.

“Hell, we were lucky to win the game,” Cooper said.

Ohio State’s all-time record on Sept. 5: 3-0.

(Photo of Dan Wilkinson: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics)

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