Curtis Samuel looks back on his fun run against Michigan

Samuel’s 8-yard gain preceded his touchdown run in OT

Curtis Samuel has watched the play only a couple of times — or probably 100 times less than the average Ohio State Buckeyes fan.

It was the play before The Play that he’ll remember as much as anything. Samuel’s 8-yard gain on a screen pass on 3rd-and-9 saw him run backward before cutting back across the field. That set up Ohio State with a 4th-and-1 in the second overtime. Two even more famous plays followed: J.T. Barrett’s controversial fourth-down conversion run and Samuel’s 15-yard game-winning touchdown run.

Neither would have been possible without the junior hybrid back Samuel’s crazy run, which he explained to reporters on Dec. 15 as preparation continued for the Dec. 31 Fiesta Bowl.

“I don’t know what I was thinking on that play because if it would have turned out bad, it would have probably been a bad day for us,” Samuel said. “I can’t explain the play. I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just knew that I had to make a play, and I had to do something for the team. I felt like they had us outnumbered. We threw the ball still, and it was one dude in front of me and a bunch of other people. I tried to cut back across field, thinking that there was probably nobody over there.”

Throughout the run, Samuel didn’t think about whether he might lose yards and knock the Buckeyes out of field-goal range. If he had gained no yards, Tyler Durbin would have faced a game-tying, 41-yard attempt. Samuel just kept running.

“I felt they were going to flow heavily over top because they have seen me swing out,” Samuel said. “But there were a couple of people backside. When I ran back, I noticed that they were coming that way, too. Then when I crossed back to try and go back the other way, mostly all the skill guys were on the right side of the field so to the left were probably the D-linemen and just a couple of linebackers. I went back to the other side and people just kind of picked up some blocks and it got us to 4th-and-1.”

Samuel caught 65 passes for 822 yards and seven touchdowns in the regular season. He rushed 91 times for 704 yards and eight touchdowns. His two touches in the second overtime helped the No. 3 Buckeyes (11-1) beat Michigan 30-27 and advance to the College Football Playoff Semifinals against No. 2 Clemson (12-1).

Samuel was one of the team’s four unanimous All-Americans, along with safety Malik Hooker and offensive linemen Pat Elflein and Billy Price. With those accolades has come attention. That’s the part of the game the Brooklyn native Samuel doesn’t like.

“I don’t like the attention,” he said. “I just care about the team. I am not a type of guy who likes too much social media. I don’t care too much about it. I don’t like media too much. I don’t like to do (interviews) too much. I am not a type of guy who likes to sit here and be told that you are doing such a great job. I don’t care about that. My main job is to do whatever is possible for this team. That is the type of guy that I am. They will think I am probably just saying this because I am on these cameras and everything, but a bunch of guys will say the same thing. I am a humble guy.”


NEXT GAME

Ohio State vs. Clemson, 7 p.m., Dec. 31, ESPN, 1410

About the Author