Dynamic Duos: Yardage (Part One)

COLUMBUS, Ohio – As questions persist at several positions for the 2021 Ohio State Buckeyes, one position that is not a concern is wide receiver, outside of maybe how do you make sure you keep everyone happy with a stacked room at the position?

With a one-two punch of Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, the Buckeyes not only have the best top-two receivers of any team in the nation but also have the deepest room surrounding them.

Over the course of a three-plus year career, Olave already has 1,775 yards with 111 receptions to go along with 22 touchdowns. Wilson has played one year less, but his numbers are impressive as well with 73 receptions for 1,155 yards and 11 touchdowns.

It got us to thinking, what have been the most impressive one-two punches at receiver in Ohio State history? Let’s not forget that this is a program with a heavy dose of running DNA in its roots and the passing numbers have not always been there.

But you might also be surprised to find out that it doesn’t have to be a Ryan Day or Urban Meyer-led team to put up the passing numbers, there were some impressive numbers that were under the regimes of Jim Tressel and John Cooper as well.

We are going back close to 30 years to check things out and will roll this out from a different angle over the course of the next three days.

Today we will look at based on total yardage of the top two receivers, which teams check in for the top-five, which team checks in dead last and what the percentage of the receiving yardage is between the top two guys.

Later we will reshuffle the deck and talk about total receptions and touchdowns scored.

Buckle up, get ready to talk about some names that we have not thought about in 20-plus years and enjoy.

The 1998 offense averaged better than 35 points per game and only had one loss along the way, a 28-24 loss to Michigan State, knocking the Buckeyes from their No. 1 spot, a position that the team held throughout the season. Ohio State would bounce back and beat Michigan 31-16 at home and then go on to beat Texas A&M in the Sugar Bowl, 24-14.

Joe Germaine saw the majority of passing attempts on this team, with 384 of the team's 419 with Mark Garcia picking up the next most with just 26 attempts. The main targets would be the one-two punch of David Boston and Dee Miller.

Boston would lead the way with a record-setting season of 85 receptions for 1,435 yards and 13 touchdowns. He would average close to 17 yards per reception and would end up being the No. 8 overall pick in the 1999 draft to Arizona.

Miller was no slouch with close to 1,000 yards of his own, coming up just short at 915 on 59 receptions and three touchdowns of his own. The combined 2,350 yards between these two receivers is a school record for a one-two punch and would account for 65.8-percent of the receiving yards on the team.

We stay in the 1990s for the '95 team and another pair of household names for Ohio State fans with Terry Glenn and Rickey Dudley almost reaching the combined 2,000-yard mark.

The '95 team would follow the same script that many Ohio State teams did under John Cooper, win all of their games until Michigan and then have a special season with a special team come unraveled.

Ohio State would take its No. 2 ranking into the Big House and fall 32-23 to the No. 18 Wolverines and then would fall to Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl in what many refer to as the "cleats game".

When it comes to the 1-2 punch, Terry Glenn carried much of it with his phenomenal 1,411 yard season and was followed by tight end Rickey Dudley and his 575 yards receiving. The pair would account for 59.6-percent of Ohio State's total receiving yardage that year on a team that would average 36.5 points per game over the course of the season.

For everyone feeling that Ohio State's passing prowess is a thing of new, we are three seasons in and this is our third team from the 1990s with the 1997 team being paced by Dee Miller and David Boston.

This team would trip up twice during the regular season with games against Penn State and Michigan and then would also fall in the Sugar Bowl to Florida State. Scoring was a little down this year with the team only averaging 30.3 points per game but it was not due to a lack of big performers including a tandem of Joe Germaine and Stanley Jackson, platooning for close to 3,000 yards combined passing and 24 touchdowns.

Miller and Boston would put up almost identical numbers in terms of yardage with Miller edging Boston out 981 yards to 970 but Boston would hold the edge in both receptions and in touchdowns. The combined 1,951 yards is good for third in terms of one-two receiving yard totals as only one other player would have more than 300 yards receiving that year (John Lumpkin). Miller/Boston would end up accounting for 62-percent of Ohio State's receiving yardage that season.

Our first entry from the "current era" and Urban Meyer's final year as head coach with Ryan Day running the offense. What will be noted here is that even with a big number from the top two guys, it still only accounted for just 38.2-percent of Ohio State's receiving number as this team was very deep at receiver and could be more of a blueprint of what we may see in 2021, no matter how good Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson are.

The combination here was made up of Parris Campbell and his 1,063 yards (the last Ohio State receiver to break the 1,000-yard mark) and KJ Hill's 885 yards.

This was the team that went to Purdue and ended up on the wrong side of a Saturday night beating as the Boilers handed Ohio State its only loss, knocking Ohio State out of the CFP race, even with a 62-39 win over Michigan and a 45-24 win over Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship game. Ohio State would go on and beat Washington in the Rose Bowl in Meyer's final game as Ohio State's head coach before handing over the controls to Ryan Day.

If you talk to the NCAA, the 2010 season does not exist, at least Ohio State's wins. This is a year that was vacated by the association, but we were there and know it happened and we are not changing a thing.

This was the final year of Terrelle Pryor at Ohio State and while he was always going to be a running quarterback, he could put up some good passing numbers too and did with Dane Sanzenbacher going off for 948 yards and DeVier Posey having 848 yards of his own for a combined 1,948 yards from this 1-2 punch.

That was good enough for 60.5-percent of Ohio State's receiving haul for the season.

Ohio State ran off to a great start on the year until a trip to Madison (Wis.) to take on the Badgers as the top-rated team in the nation would go awry, starting with the opening kickoff being returned for a touchdown.

Ohio State would bounce back and lay waste to four of its next five opponents, only with Iowa playing Ohio State close in a 20-17 decision in Iowa City (Iowa).

The Buckeyes would draw Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl and would hold on for a 31-26 win over the Razorbacks, giving Ohio State its first win over a member of the SEC in a bowl game in history.

That game has been taken away from Ohio State by many, and Ohio State would replace that win a 2014 Sugar Bowl win over Alabama in the CFP semis.

2011 has been called a "clown show" by Urban Meyer and there is not a whole lot to really grab on to for that season, even with Ohio State making a bowl game, winning a few games it shouldn't and having its version of 'rock bottom' resulting in just a 6-7 season.

The combined number here is 499 yards with Devin Smith accounting for 294 and Philly Brown checking in at 205 yards. The good news, if there is such a thing, is that was only 30.2-percent of the offense. The bad news is this goes down as one of the worst passing production offenses in Ohio State history, or at least since the days of the popularization of the forward pass.

Every single player mentioned above this season, including the 2's of the 1-2 punch, had more than 499 yards on their own. A true outlier over this 30-year-plus lookback.