OSU vs Illinois 1995 By Robert Stevenson Illini
Bitten Eddie fumbled twice against Illinois in 1992. Both times he was inside the five-yard line. Both turnovers led to Illini touchdowns in the 18-14 loss. Eddie was a freshman then. George is now a veteran with four year's experience, and on Veterans Day 1995 he held-on to the ball. His 314-yards on 36 carries set a single-game record for OSU and catapulted his Heisman chances over the moon. Almost as surprising was the turnaround of Lucky Mike Malfatt, who kicked-off eight times without a muff and won special teams player of the game honors. Punter Brent Bartholomew played a perfect game. If my algebra is correct, Brent’s zero kicks divided by zero total yardage gives him an average of infinity-yards per kick on Saturday. All-America linebackers Simeon Rice and Kevin, the two surefire first-round draft picks, collected a COMBINED total of six tackles and one assist. Rice saw enough of Orlando Pace Saturday to last a lifetime. On his TV show Sunday Coop highlighted and diagrammed a play in which tight end Rickey Dudley blocked Hardy backwards 15-yards, almost out of bounds. Fullback Nicky Sualua, center Juan Porter, guards Jamie Sumner and LaShun Daniels and right tackle Eric Gohlstin all did a great job blocking. Almost overlooked was the fine performance by the OSU defense in keeping Illinois out of the endzone. The season statistics don’t give a true picture, because the second-team defense has played so much. The Iowa second-half is the reason Florida moved ahead of OSU in the computerized poll. Tackle Matt Bonhaus is the only senior graduating this year. Nine starters on defense are juniors. Terry Glenn is having more trouble with muscle spasms in his back and chest than in the shoulder joint itself. The condition is giving him symptoms similar to whiplash. This is the first time Terry has ever been hurt, and there may be a psychological factor. He was still having pain when catching passes at practice all week, and appears doubtful for the Indiana game. Even if Gluefingers does play he won’t be 100%, but wide receivers Dimitrious Stanley and Buster Tillman are both deadly. It's too bad if he can't play at all, because if his first game back is with Michigan, he may not play with the confidence he would have if he could test the shoulder first against Indiana. Second-string tight end John Lumpkin re-aggravated an old injury, loosening the screw placed in his foot last summer to stabilize a broken bone. He is out for the rest of the football season and unlikely to play basketball this season. Junior tight end Bob Houser, a two-year letterman, moves up. Speaking
of injuries, recall when Illinois running back Steve
Havard was KO’d by nose guard Luke Fickell and
cornerback Ty Howard on the last play of the third
quarter There was a very long injury time-out. He was
knocked cold for a only couple minutes. When he came to,
trainers found that he could make a fist and wiggle his
feet, and the injury did not appear serious. They decided
to cart him off only as a precaution. Here’s why it
took so long for the squad to get there. Last Saturday
saw an unusually large number of deaths (3) at the game.
One person had a heart-attack at the Drake Union shortly
before kickoff. Two other fans at the game left the
stadium feet-first on their way to that big endzone in
the sky. When the squad was called for Havard, both units
assigned to the game were at University Hospital
dropping-off cadavers. That's why it took so long. |