By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine Senior Writer
Oct. 24, 1998
EVANSTON, Ill. -- His name is Dan Stultz and someday soon he could cost Ohio State a national championship.
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Judging from Saturday's 36-10 victory over Northwestern, No. 1 Ohio State has little to worry about in the near term. The defense could have won this one by itself. Northwestern was forced to punt a school-record 13 times. Wildcat quarterbacks were sacked five times. Sure, Buckeye quarterback Joe Germaine was off a bit but it was hard to notice after another 300-yard passing day.
But you want near-perfection out of the nation's No. 1 team. You want convincing performances. You want a kicker who can make an extra point. Stultz couldn't even do that Saturday. A 15-yard penalty against Ohio State tight end John Lumpkin after a touchdown forced Stultz to kick a 35-yard conversion. He missed badly, ending a string of 61 in a row.
"It was out in the middle of the field," an incredulous John Cooper said.
Minutes earlier, during an obvious second-quarter field-goal situation, Cooper, the Buckeyes coach, showed his lack of confidence in the sophomore kicker. He went for it on fourth-and-4 from Northwestern's 23. When Germaine's pass fell incomplete, Cooper couldn't be accused of gambling. Actually, he was making the smart play.
THROW IN A MISSED 42-YARD FIELD GOAL in the third quarter and Stultz is beginning to look like a disaster waiting to happen.
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The Buckeyes are hoping Joe Germaine's passing can make up for a weak kicking game.
(AP)
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Incredibly, there is no backup kicker on a team deeper than the Lake Michigan it played near on Saturday. That fact isn't likely to change between now and the bowl season. With future NFL stars playing at several positions, Ohio State's chances might come down to a guy who is seven for 21 from beyond the 40-yard line in his career. After making one of his two attempts Saturday, Stultz is 8-for-16 overall this season.
The importance of a reliable kicker as the calendar ticks toward January cannot be emphasized enough. Florida State coach Bobby Bowden used to hold open tryouts for walk-on kickers until Wide Right became a brand name for failure in Tallahassee. Now he spends scholarships on the best high school kickers in the country.
NEBRASKA COASTED THROUGH THE 1993 season with the erratic Byron Bennett as its kicker. If not for him missing the 45-yard game-winner in the 1994 Orange Bowl against Florida State, the Huskers would have won four titles in five years.
The same scenario is evolving at Ohio State. Sometime, somewhere the Buckeyes will play a close game this season. Perhaps, even, before the bowl.
Because of Stultz's follies, the game was close deep into the third quarter. Northwestern fans couldn't have been blamed for sniffing an upset trailing only 23-10. A defense led by linebacker Barry Gardner and his 16 tackles was holding on.
"We came in here expecting to win big," Ohio State cornerback Antoine Winfield said. "We were the No. 1 coming in here, I guess they had something to prove."
Then with 2 minutes, 31 seconds left in the third quarter, Germaine found David Boston for a 38-yard touchdown pass to make it 29-10. While the numerous Ohio State fans went wild, Northwestern's effort noticeably sagged.
THE SEVEN POTENTIAL POINTS THAT Stultz could have kicked looked meaningless when the final score was posted. But this is the time to nit-pick. The meek, undersized and sometimes forgotten member of the football species has wrecked great seasons.
Stultz came into the game having completed only half of his 14 attempts. The sophomore from Orrville, Ohio, actually had a decent season as a freshman, making 15 of 25. But get his leg outside 40 yards and it locks up.
On its first possession of the second half, the Buckeyes stalled at the Northwestern 25. With a negligible wind blowing in his face, Stultz sent a 42-yarder wobbling wide left.
Piling on isn't exactly fair for the kicker of an undefeated team. The kid is already courageous. Two years ago, he battled back from Graves' Disease, a thyroid condition that causes weight loss. Last season he led Ohio State in scoring and kicked the second-longest field goal in school history, 55 yards against Indiana.
ANYTHING HE DOES THE REST OF HIS career is gravy. Still, he is only a 56-percent career kicker. This is the time of year to look for flaws in the country's supposedly infallible team. Ohio State will undoubtedly stay No. 1 in both major polls but there is a skittishness on the inside about this first Bowl Championship Series poll that debuts on Monday.
Some unofficial BCS polls showed UCLA had jumped Ohio State into the No. 1 slot. The worry is that Ohio State could win out and miss the Fiesta Bowl because of the Big Ten's less-than-stellar power rating. The time is now for the Buckeyes (7-0, 4-0 in the Big Ten) to run up scores. With computers and strength of schedule components involved, wiping out the likes of Northwestern (2-6, 0-5 in the Big Ten) means something. Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, they couldn't quite pull it off.
"You'll wake up in the morning and find out there will be some good football teams that won ugly," Cooper said. "I've been in it long enough where I appreciate a victory. It may be ugly, it may not be as one-sided as some people would like it to have been but I'll take it any day of the week."
Check back with Cooper on Dec. 6. That's the day the Fiesta Bowl pairings are announced.
Dennis Dodd is a senior writer in CBS SportsLine's Kansas City bureau.