tBBC is beginning a series of articles to countdown the nineteen Chicago Tribune Silver Football Award Winners after J.T. Barrett became the latest. He ended up in a tie with Saquon Barkley of Penn State, but it shows that someone in the Mid-West was paying attention to the record shattering season he out together. Let’s get rolling with number eightteen on the list.
#18 Cornelius Greene 1975
The Career
During Greene’s time in Scarlet and Gray he and Archie Griffin were rewriting the total offense record book together and stood atop the list by themselves when it was all said and done with more than 10,000 total yards of offense between them and Greene having the lesser share of 4,414. He finished his career as the starting quarterback of the Buckeyes with an over-all won-loss record of 31-3-1 and may have been his career handing off to the likes of Archie and Pete Johnson in 1975 that won him the award.
The Season
Once again an Ohio State quarterback during the Woody Hayes era benefited from two running backs who were eating up big chunks of yards. Archie gained 1,450 yards to Johnson’s 1,059 and Greene’s 518. Collectively the three scored 37 touchdowns on the ground(Johnson 25) which was a staggering total at the time. Greene wasn’t efficient or all that effective when needed through the air that season but got the job done with 68 for 121 for 6 touchdowns and 8 interceptions.
The Reason
All Cornelius Greene ever did was win football games while in Columbus, his record speaks for itself. He also set the tone for the recruitment of Art Schlichter by Woody Hayes and the possibility of opening up the passing game a bit more. Woody Hayes always said three things can happen during the forward pass play and two of them were bad. Little did he know that would actually become his undoing. Greene was a very capable athlete that was needed to fill in some of the blanks with the three yards and a cloud of dust mentality at the time. His winning this award may have been more about the Chicago Tribune not wanting to give it to the almost two-time Heisman winner in Archie Griffin who would have won this award a third time.
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