Ohio State Football: Looking Back—The Legacy of 1998

We conclude our look at the 1998 Buckeye football team by examining the team’s legacy and trying to figure out what most of that team is up to these days.

There’s certainly a strong argument to be made that the 1998 team was the most talented Buckeye squad of the past quarter century.  True, the 2002 squad closed the deal, but stop for a minute and think of what Tressel would have accomplished at the helm of the 1998 team.  Take nothing away from Cooper—his recruiting operation took the program to a new level—but he’s no Tressel.

1998 was not only Cooper’s best team, it was his last good team for that matter.  The 1999 opener would see his ninth-ranked Buckeyes soundly beaten by Butch Davis and the Hurricanes in the Kickoff Classic.  The defining play came on the Buckeyes’ first possession when Michael Wiley was run down from behind by Miami linebacker Al Blades.

The Canes would go on to earn a 23-12 victory, but the score wasn’t even that close. Miami was back on the map and used that game as a springboard to three years of dominance, while the Buckeyes sputtered to a 6-6 finish.  Sixteen months later, after an 8-4 season and an Outback Bowl embarrassment, Cooper was jobless.

Today, some coaches and players from that 1998 team are still involved in football, while others are off the radar.  Cooper never coached again but will be formally enshrined in the College Football Hall of fame in four weeks.

Offensive coordinator Mike Jacobs served a stint at Oklahoma State and is now the interim head coach at Mesa Community College.  Defensive coordinator Fred Pagac parted ways with Ohio State upon Tressel’s arrival and spent time with the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs before joining the Minnesota Vikings in 2006, where he’s still employed as the team’s linebacker coach.

Upper Arlington native John Tenuta, the defensive backs coach on the 1998 team, is currently the assistant head coach at Notre Dame after a successful run as the defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech.

Quarterback Joe Germaine is lighting up the AFL for Danny White and the Utah Blaze.  He had the misfortune of going to the Rams right when the Kurt Warner Experience was coming online, but will probably be an AFL first-ballot Hall-of-Famer if such a thing even exists.  Michael Wiley spent three years in with the Cowboys and is now something of a nightclub impresario in Columbus.

Wide receiver David Boston left after his junior season and was an Arizona Cardinals first-round selection in 1999.  He would lead the NFL in receiving in 1999, and greatness appeared to be around the corner until a rash of injuries and the steroids bug landed him out of the NFL.

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