1981 Ohio State Buckeyes football team

The 1981 Ohio State Buckeyes football team represented the Ohio State University in the 1981 Big Ten Conference football season. The Buckeyes compiled a 9–3 record, including the 1981 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee, where they won, 31–28, against the Navy Midshipmen. Ohio State and Iowa were the only conference teams not to play one another, and they ended up in a tie for the Big Ten title. That cost the Buckeyes a possible outright conference championship and trip to the 1982 Rose Bowl as Iowa landed the Rose Bowl bid due to not going to the Rose Bowl longer than Ohio State.

1981 Ohio State Buckeyes football
Big Ten co-champion Liberty Bowl champion
Liberty Bowl, W 31–28 vs. Navy
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 12
AP	No. 15
1981 record	9–3 (6–2 Big Ten)
Head coach	Earle Bruce (3rd season)
Offensive coordinator	Glen Mason (2nd season)
Defensive coordinator	Dennis Fryzel (3rd season)
MVP	Art Schlichter
Captains	Glen Cobb Art Schlichter
Home stadium	Ohio Stadium (Capacity: 83,112)

1981 Big Ten Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 15 Ohio State +	6	–	2	–	0			9	–	3	–	0
No. 18 Iowa +	6	–	2	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
No. 12 Michigan	6	–	3	–	0			9	–	3	–	0
Illinois	6	–	3	–	0			7	–	4	–	0
Wisconsin	6	–	3	–	0			7	–	5	–	0
Minnesota	4	–	5	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
Michigan State	4	–	5	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Purdue	3	–	6	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Indiana	3	–	6	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Northwestern	0	–	9	–	0			0	–	11	–	0
+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

Several Ohio State players ranked among the Big Ten leaders, including the following:

• Placekicker Bob Atha led the conference with 88 points scored and 44 extra points made and ranked second with 13 field goals made and a 68.4% field goal percentage.[1]
• Garcia Lane led the conference with 205 punt return yards and ranked second with an average of 8.9 yards per punt return.[1]
• Running back Tim Spencer led the conference with 12 rushing touchdowns and ranked second with 1,217 rushing yards and 1,427 yards from scrimmage.[1]
• Quarterback Art Schlichter ranked third in the conference with 2,551 passing yards and 2,509 total yards and fifth with a 52.3 pass completion percentage.[1]
• Gary Williams ranked third in the conference with 50 receptions and fourth with 941 receiving yards.[1]

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 12	1:30 p.m.	Duke*	No. 11	Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH		W 34–13	86,266
September 19	1:30 p.m.	Michigan State	No. 8	Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH (rivalry)		W 27–13	87,084
September 26	4:30 p.m.	at Stanford*	No. 8	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA		W 24–19	76,102
October 3	1:30 p.m.	Florida State*	No. 7	Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH		L 27–36	87,158
October 10	2:30 p.m.	at Wisconsin	No. 18	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI		L 21–24	78,973
October 17	1:30 p.m.	Illinois		Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH (Illibuck Trophy)		W 34–27	87,158
October 24	1:30 p.m.	Indiana		Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH		W 29-10	87,182
October 31	12:30 p.m.	at Purdue		Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, IN	ABC	W 45–33	69,927
November 7	2:00 p.m.	at Minnesota	No. 18	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN		L 31–35	42,793
November 14	1:30 p.m.	Northwestern		Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH		W 70–6	86,912
November 21	12:30 p.m.	at No. 7 Michigan		Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI (The Game)	ABC	W 14–9	106,043
December 30	8:00 p.m.	vs. Navy*	No. 15	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Memphis, TN (Liberty Bowl)	USA	W 31–28	43,216
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Roster

1981 Ohio State Buckeyes football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class FB 38 Vaughn Broadnax So TE 89 John Frank So T 64 Jim Lachey Fr QB 10 Art Schlichter Jr RB 46 Tim Spencer So QB 15 Mike Tomczak Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class DB 2 Shaun Gayle So LB   Anthony Griggs Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K   Bob Atha Sr	Head coach Earle Bruce Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Depth chart

Defense FS Garcia Lane ⋅ ROLB ILB ILB LOLB Anthony Griggs Glen Cobb Marcus Marek Mike D’Andrea Ben Lee ⋅ ⋅ Orlando Lowry ROV Doug Hill Rowland Tatum CB Shaun Gayle Jeff Cisco DE NT DE Chris Riehm Nick Miller Jerome Foster ⋅ Spencer Nelms ⋅ CB Kelvin Bell Mark Eberts Offense SE Gary Williams Thad Jemison LT LG C RG RT William Roberts Scott Zalenski Jim DeLeone Joe Lukens Joe Smith Jim Lachey ⋅ Kirk Lowdermilk ⋅ Jim Carson TE John Frank Brad Dwelle FL Cedric Anderson ⋅ QB Art Schlichter Mike Tomczak FB Vaughn Broadnax ⋅ Special Teams PK Bob Atha P Gary Alders P Karl Edwards RB Tim Spencer Jimmy Gayle

[2]

Coaching staff

• Earle Bruce – Head Coach (3rd year)
• Dennis Fryzel – Defensive Coordinator (3rd year)
• Glen Mason – Offensive Coordinator (4th year)
• Bill Myles – Offensive Line (5th year)
• Nick Saban – Defensive Backs (2nd year)
• Wayne Stanley – Running Backs (3rd year)
• Steve Szabo – Defensive Line (3rd year)
• Bob Tucker – Defensive Outside Linebackers (3rd year)
• Fred Zechman – Quarterbacks/Receivers (3rd year)

Game summaries

Duke

Michigan State

1 2 3 4 Total Michigan St 0 0 7 6 13 • Ohio St 7 10 0 10 27 Date: September 12 Location: Ohio Stadium Game attendance: 87,084

Stanford

1 2 3 4 Total • Ohio State 0 17 7 0 24 Stanford 3 3 0 13 19 Date: September 26 Location: Stanford Stadium • Palo Alto, California Television network: ESPN

Scoring summary 1 Stanford Mark Harmon 25-yard field goal Stanford 3-0 2 OSU Shaun Gayle 1-yard run (Atha kick) OSU 7-3 2 Stanford Mark Harmon 39-yard field goal) OSU 7-6 2 OSU Robert Atha 45-yard field goal OSU 10-6 2 OSU Brad Dwelle 5-yard pass from Art Schlichter (Atha kick) OSU 17-6 3 OSU Brad Dwelle 7-yard pass from Art Schlicther (Atha kick) OSU 24-6 4 Stanford Donald Lonslinger 4-yard pass from John Elway (pass failed) OSU 24-12 4 Stanford Michael Tolliver 23-yard pass from John Elway (Harmon kick) OSU 24-19

Florida State

1 2 3 4 Total • Florida St 10 13 13 0 36 Ohio State 7 14 0 6 27 Date: October 3 Location: Ohio Stadium • Columbus, Ohio Television network: USA

[3]

Wisconsin

1 2 3 4 Total Ohio St 7 7 0 7 21 • Wisconsin 0 17 0 7 24 Date: October 10 Location: Camp Randall Stadium Game attendance: 78,973

Illinois

1 2 3 4 Total Illinois 10 10 7 0 27 • Ohio St 21 3 7 3 34 Date: October 17 Location: Ohio Stadium

Indiana

1 2 3 4 Total Indiana 7 3 0 0 10 • Ohio St 3 9 14 3 29 Date: October 24 Location: Ohio Stadium Game attendance: 87,182

Purdue

1 2 3 4 Total • Ohio St 0 17 7 21 45 Purdue 7 7 6 13 33 Date: October 31 Location: Ross-Ade Stadium Game attendance: 69,927

Minnesota

1 2 3 4 Total Ohio St 14 7 7 3 31 • Minnesota 0 7 14 14 35 Date: November 7 Location: Memorial Stadium Game attendance: 42,793

Northwestern

1 2 3 4 Total Northwestern 0 6 0 0 6 • Ohio St 7 28 28 7 70 Date: November 14 Location: Ohio Stadium Game attendance: 86,916

Michigan

1 2 3 4 Total • Ohio State 0 7 0 7 14 Michigan 3 0 6 0 9 Date: November 21 Location: Michigan Stadium • Ann Arbor, Michigan Game attendance: 106,043 TV announcers (ABC): Al Michaels

Scoring summary 1 MICH Ali Haji-Sheikh 19-yard field goal MICH 3-0 2 OSU Art Schlichter 1-yard run (Robert Atha kick) OSU 7-3 3 MICH Ali Haji-Sheikh 26-yard field goal OSU 7-6 3 MICH Ali Haji-Sheikh 24-yard field goal MICH 9-7 4 OSU Art Schlichter 6-yard run (Robert Atha kick) OSU 14-9

Liberty Bowl

1981 Liberty Bowl

1 2 3 4 Total • Ohio State 10 7 7 7 31 Navy 7 6 7 8 28 Date: December 30 Location: Liberty Bowl • Memphis, Tennessee

[4]

1982 NFL draftees

Player	Round	Pick	Position	NFL club
Art Schlichter	1	4	Quarterback	Baltimore Colts
Anthony Griggs	4	105	Linebacker	Philadelphia Eagles
Bob Atha	12	317	Kicker	St. Louis Cardinals

References

1. "1981 Big Ten Conference Year Summary". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
2. 1982 Ohio State Football Media Guide
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-04-27. Retrieved 2014-04-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. http://admin.xosn.com/fls/17300//pdf/fb/m-footbl-bowls.pdf

Win/Loss statistics

• Ohio State Historical Scores
• 1981 Ohio State Buckeyes Schedule and Results
• 1981 Ohio State Buckeyes Stats
• 1981 Big Ten Conference Year Summary

Draft data

• Ohio State Drafted Players