Customer Reviews

A Buckeye Season: The Inside Story of the Glory and Heartbreak of Ohio State's 1995 Season

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Jeff Snook's chronicle of the 1995 Ohio State University Buckeyes' football season reads as a veritable "who's who" of the NFL: QB Bobby Hoying (Oakland), RB Eddie George (Tennessee), WR Terry Glenn (New England), CB Shawn Springs (Seattle), and others all feature in the Buckeye team pushing for an unbeaten season and a chance at the national championship. Coach John Cooper's players are a hard-working, clean-living bunch - admirable qualities, but ones that unwittingly conspire with other elements to drain the book of any real drama: there are no mercurial young players who clash with the coaching staff or have profound emotional issues to overcome: the pressure upon Cooper to deliver success is obvious, but not overwhelming. Neither are there desperate, against-the-odds struggles to upset stronger opposition - those match-ups that do test the team, including a season-finale clash with hated nemesis Michigan, suffer from Snook's failure with his spiritless prose to capture any of the on-field atmosphere and emotion. His reluctance as well to print bad language deprives the book of gritty realism and further negates his intention to tell "the inside story" of the team. Followers of Ohio State will enjoy the book as a means to reminisce over past glories, while Eddie George fans will savor the Herculean efforts that by season's end had made him a frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy. The more casual reader, however, will be disappointed by an uninspired and very ordinary book that, although occasionally diverting, ultimately fails to engage in any meaningful way.

Coming off a second top-two finish in three years, Ohio State fans have begun to take for granted that our team will contend for the national title year-in and year-out.

How quickly we forget that John Cooper's early years at Ohio State were filled with mediocrity and losses to schools of the Little Eight! As recently as 1994, OSU lost four games and was even beaten by lowly Illinois.

Jeff Snook's book gives us a glimpse into the beginnings of the maturation of John Cooper's program-- the 1995 season.

While the 1993 team spent several weeks ranked among the Top 5, it was the 1995 team that truly signified that Cooper's program was at last capable of producing an absolute powerhouse.

1995 featured all of the hallmarks of Cooper's best teams: flashy NFL-caliber talent, clutch wins over big-name opponents, and a heart-breaking loss to an inferior Michigan team.

Not a great book, but certainly worth the money Amazon is asking.

This book was truly cool. Everything that happened in it happened for a reason. Some of the players on that team are now in the National Football League like Terry Glenn, Eddie George, Bobby Hoying, Orlando Pace, and Shawn Springs. John Cooper was coach who had his job up in the air. This is a great book if you like football.

Day to day, week to week review of events during the season becomes a bit monotonous in this account of a great year for buckeye faithful. But, what does come out, is the real personality of John Cooper in a way that up to this point in time, is rarely appreciated by football fans. Hardline buckeye fans, home grown Ohio boys who did not take to well to the southern accent in Woody Hayes's office, soften to the reality that this is the 1990's and this man, John Cooper, is a credit to himself, his program, and the university. Behind the scenes accounts of how he deals with players, life challenges are excellent. Inner workings of how the week goes to prepare for Saturdays game give a good flavor of college football life. Dealing with the heart- break of another Michigan loss, putting in perspective is attempted....but not dealt with very well. Overall, good book, if you still think John Cooper belongs in Tennessee, read it.