Yep, USC has a 7-game winning streak over Ohio State that dates back to 1975

Gather ‘round, children, and I will tell you a tale of when Ohio State could not beat Michigan. That might seem far-fetched, but Ohio State beat Michigan all of twice in John Cooper’s tenure from 1988-2000. Needless to say, Ohio State’s ended that drought with authority.

The next mountain to climb was winning a game against an SEC opponent. Jim Tressel’s first season ended with a loss to South Carolina. He would then drop championship games to Florida and LSU. That was tacked onto a five-game losing streak by Cooper, and the “Ohio State can’t compete with Southern speed” meme came into being. Tressel ended the streak against Arkansas in his final game as head coach, albeit under the cloud of a scandal that would cost him his job. Then Urban Meyer beat Alabama en route to a national title in 2014, and the SEC meme was buried.

Ohio State and USC are in the top 10 all-time in each of the 12 categories tracked by Winsipedia, with the exception of Ohio State’s below-.500 record in bowl games. But the Trojans have owned the Buckeyes since an Ohio State Rose Bowl win at the end of the 1973 season (and there was some dissent as to whether Ohio State should play in that game in the first place).

This is a game contested by college football royalty, but only House Trojan has established military dominance over House Buckeye for an extended period of time.

Let’s start our story 50 years ago in 1968, when Ohio State and USC met in the Rose Bowl for the first time in 14 years. The teams had met four times in the regular season in the intervening period, with the home team winning all four times.

In 1968, Woody Hayes brought his famous sophomore class to Pasadena, one that had turned Ohio State from a 6-3 team in 1967 to a top-ranked squad in 1968. John McKay’s USC was No. 2, a tie with Notre Dame its only blemish. It had Heisman winner O.J. Simpson, who had just put on a performance for the ages against UCLA. Things started great for O.J. (80-yard touchdown run in the first half) and then crumbled (two fumbles in the second half).

The teams then met in back-to-back Rose Bowls in 1973 and 1974, trading blowout wins. USC won 42-17 in 1972 to cap off an unbeaten season with a national title. Sam Cunningham scored four touchdowns, all in the second half. Ohio State returned the favor the following year, turning a 21-14 third quarter deficit into a 42-21 win with four unanswered touchdowns.

And that’s the last time Ohio State beat USC.

USC would meet Ohio State three times in the next 11 seasons, all in Pasadena. The three games were decided by a total of five points. And the Trojans won all three.

The Trojans won a back-and-forth game. With three lead changes in the fourth quarter (a lot in a low-scoring era), the Trojans struck last as Pat Haden found McKay’s son for a touchdown and Shelton Diggs for the winning two-point conversion. Enjoy the majesty of a run-based offense’s two-minute drill at the end of this clip:

Five years later, Bruce would bring an unbeaten Ohio State team to Pasadena. Again, Ohio State held a lead in the fourth quarter and again, could not hold it. Charles White did the damage this time, scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 1:32 remaining (and this time, he actually crossed the goal line with the ball). Enjoy the dulcet sounds of the late Dick Enberg:

And five years after that, Bruce again brought a favored Ohio State team to Pasadena. In this game, USC got out to a 20-9 lead, Ohio State cut the lead to three, but unlike USC in the two prior meetings, Ohio State’s late drive ended with the ball being knocked out of Mike Tomczak’s hand, followed by an incompletion. Enjoy in this clip the dearth of targets to future NFL star Cris Carter on the Buckeyes’ final drive.

And just like that, Ohio State had a three-game losing streak to USC.

Ohio State and USC scheduled a home-and-home series for 1989-90. Ohio State was building under Cooper while Larry Smith’s USC was losing its grasp on the Pac-10 to Don James’ Washington, but those changing fortunes were not reflected in the two meetings. The Trojans handled the Buckeyes 42-3 at the Coliseum and 35-26 at Ohio Stadium. The most memorable event of the series was Cooper allowing the 1990 game to end early despite the fact that his team had closed to within nine points.

The meetings in 2008 and 2009 drew significantly more interest. USC was in the Pete Carroll dynastic period, while Ohio State under Tressel was dominant in the Big Ten. USC won the national title in the 2003 and 2004 seasons, then lost a narrow title game in the 2005 season. Ohio State made title games in the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

USC earned a runaway victory in 2008. Ohio State, caught in between Todd Boeckman and freshman Terrelle Pryor, could not move on Carroll’s defense, while Mark Sanchez cut Ohio State to pieces. The game finished 35-3 thanks to the mercy of Carroll, a former Buckeyes assistant whose team did not score in the fourth quarter.

2009 was entirely different. Now, USC was quarterbacked by a true freshman: Matt Barkley. Ohio State was at home and led by Pryor, who had started most of the 2008 season. And the Buckeyes would have won had Tressel deployed an offense that could take advantage of Pryor’s running ability. Some highlights from Chris Brown’s evisceration of Tressel’s game plan:

USC won 18-15 on a late Barkley drive. Within two seasons, both Carroll and Tressel would be gone as a direct or indirect result of NCAA investigations.

Ohio State eventually hired Meyer as its coach and is a touchdown favorite to end its seven-game losing streak to the Trojans. USC replaced Carroll with Lane Kiffin, then Steve Sarkisian, and now Clay Helton. Helton is charged with continuing a stretch that was started by McKay in the 1970s.

If he can’t, then another Ohio State meme will die.