2005 Texas Vs. Ohio State Football Game - Leading Into The 2005 Season

Leading Into The 2005 Season

The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns are two of the most storied programs in college football. Before 2005 each school had participated in college football for more than 100 years. They are home to nationally known traditions from the Buckeye leaf stickers and the O-H-I-O chant at Ohio State to Bevo and the Hook 'em Horns of Texas.

One of the three most victorious programs in college football history as judged by either number of wins or winning percentage, the University of Texas has traditionally been considered a college football powerhouse. From 1936 to 2004, the team finished the season in the top ten 23 times, or one-third of the time, according to the Associated Press. The team that coach Mack Brown fielded in 2005 has been called one of the most memorable in college football history by College Football News.

Like the Longhorns, the Buckeyes are an elite football program. The Buckeyes program has produced 164 first-team All-American players, including seven Heisman Trophy winners.

The 2005 UT team was attempting to follow on the success of the 2004 season, in which quarterback Vince Young led the team to Mack Brown's first Bowl Championship Series (BCS) game in the 2005 Rose Bowl and a top-5 finish in the polls. With the exception of Cedric Benson, Derrick Johnson, and Bo Scaife, Texas returned most of their key players from 2004–2005, including redshirt junior quarterback Vince Young.

Texas was given a pre-season No. 2 ranking (behind defending National Champions University of Southern California) by Sports Illustrated magazine and was also ranked second in the pre-season Associated Press Poll and USA Today Coaches Poll. This created anticipation that Texas might play for the national championship if they could win their road game against Ohio State University and if they could snap their five-game losing streak against the Oklahoma Sooners who started the season ranked at No. 7.

Ohio State had similarly high pre-season expectations with their No. 4 ranking. There was preseason speculation they might win the Big Ten Conference and possibly even to have a chance at the national championship. The team featured a "dynamic duo" of wide receivers in Ted Ginn, Jr. and Santonio Holmes. Holmes entered his junior year as the No. 1 receiver for the Buckeyes after catching a pass in every game he played during the 2004 season; he finished the season with 769 yards and seven touchdowns on 55 catches. Ginn was known for his explosive plays and versatility. For instance in the 2004 game against the Michigan State Spartans, he scored three touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving, and one punt return).

For either team to play in the national title game, that team had to end up ranked No. 1 or No. 2 at the end of the regular season. Since the Bowl Championship Series was formed in 1998, 9 of the 14 teams were unbeaten going into the championship game. The only time the national champion has not been unbeaten during that stretch was in 2003 when LSU and USC claimed a share of the title as each finished with one loss. Ohio State tackle Kirk Barton would later say "There’ll probably be two undefeated teams at the end of the road and if you’re not one of them you’re probably not going to be playing for the championship. So you’ve got to treat every game like it’s the Super Bowl. You only get one opportunity."

Further information: 2005 NCAA Division I-A football rankings Further information: 2005 Texas Longhorn football team#Rankings