Buckeye Rosters

Recap

Columbus, OH — The No.1-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes pulled away from the Toledo Rockets in the first eight minutes and never looked back during a convincing 49-0 win. On offense, junior tailback Michael Wiley rushed for a career-high 151 yards and senior quarterback Joe Germaine passed for three touchdowns and 150 yards to spark the 49-point day. On defense, Toledo was only able to generate just 194 yards of total offense (compared to OSU’s 512 yards).

The defense made the opening statement of the game by holding Toledo to the minimum three plays and 0 yards. Just five yards after the punt, Wiley exploded for a 76-yard score, the longest touchdown run of his career, to put the Buckeyes up 7-0. After another Toledo three-and-out offensive series, the Buckeyes hit another long home run when Germaine hit Dee Miller streaking down the sideline for a 68-yard score.

Toledo got the ball back for only two plays, thanks to safety Damon Moore’s first interception of the season. His theft put the Buckeyes on the Toledo 18-yard line. Four plays later, Germaine found David Boston in the corner of the endzone for a 5-yard touchdown reception to give OSU a 21-0 lead. The Buckeyes kept the momentum going in the second quarter. Just under two minutes in, Joe Montgomery found the endzone with an 11-yard scamper to stretch the OSU lead, 28-0. Later in the quarter, sophomore linebacker Na’il Diggs recorded his first career interception to put the ball at the Toledo 5-yard line. Just one play later, Germaine tossed a 5-yard score to Reggie Germany to increase the OSU lead, 35-0. The Buckeyes tacked on one more score before the half off a 47-yard bomb from senior quarterback Mark Garcia to Germany. OSU went to the half up 42-0. In the second half, OSU would score one more time off a 12-play, 80-yard drive which resulted in a 4-yard Wiley touchdown run.

Sophomore Joe Cooper came off the bench to record 10 tackles to lead in that category. Sophomores Tim Cheatwood and David Mitchell combined for 11. Junior Randy Homa had two of the team’s nine tackles-for-loss.

NOTES: Ohio State has won 20-consecutive Ohio Stadium opening games and has an all-time home-opener record of 96-9-4 (.906) through 109 years. A sellout crowd of 93,149 witnessed the game.

Offensive coordinator Mike Jacobs was an assistant coach at Toledo in 1979. Ends coach Shawn Simms was running backs coach at Toledo for four years, between 1991-94. Chuck Stobart was Toledo’s head coach between 1977-81.

The game marked the first-ever meeting between Ohio State and Toledo. The Buckeyes are 13-1 against current members of the Mid American Conference. The only loss was to Akron in 1894, 12-6.

The game marked the third meeting between Ohio State and another in-state institution since 1934. Games against Bowling Green in 1992 and 1997 were the last two. The Toledo game was the second in a current six-year run of games between the Buckeyes and in-state schools. In the next four seasons the Buckeyes will meet Ohio and Cincinnati (in 1999), Miami (2000), Akron (2001) and Kent State and Cincinnati (2002). The Buckeyes also will play Cincinnati in 2004 and 2006. All the games will be at Ohio Stadium with the exception of the 2002 Cincinnati game. Ohio State is 154-39-13 against in-state opponents.