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Ohio State has employed a lot of great coaches so far this century.
It all started with Jim Tressel leading the football team to an undefeated season and national title in 2002. A little more than a decade later
Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes won the first-ever College Football Playoff.
Now Ryan Day is in charge of the program. Day already has earned a national championship and with the way he has built the program it looks like he could win a couple more before he leaves Columbus.
On the basketball court, Thad Matta built Ohio State into one of the best programs in the country, going to the Final Four twice, and making the title game in 2007.
Wrestling has Tom Ryan, who won a national title in 2015. Ty Tucker is in charge of the tennis program, posting over 700 wins in 26 seasons as coach, winning the Big Ten Coach of the Year award 18 times.
There are a number of other coaches who have posted some incredible accomplishments during their time in charge of Buckeye squads.
For as great as all those coaches mentioned have been at Ohio State, they all take a back seat to women’s ice hockey coach Nadine Muzerall.
Following an outstanding playing career which saw her score the game-winning goal in the 2000 national championship game for Minnesota, Muzerall eventually returned to her alma mater as an assistant coach, where she was part of four national title teams.
Prior to the 2016-17 season the Ohio State women’s ice hockey program was in desperate need of a shakeup.
Since beginning NCAA play in 1999, the Buckeyes only had one season where they won at least 20 games and had never won the WCHA Conference Tournament or qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Ohio State and athletic director looked within the conference and hired Muzerall away from Minnesota.
In her first season in charge, Muzerall won just 14 games. Aside from the 2020-21 season which was shortened by COVID-19, the 2016-17 season would be the last where the program would win less than 20 games under Muzerall. The following year would see the Buckeyes not only win 24 games, they would reach the Frozen Four for the first time in school history, losing to Clarkson 1-0 in one of the national semifinals.
Despite the loss, it was obvious the program was headed in the right direction under Muzerall.
2018-19 saw Ohio State slump a little bit, only reaching 20 wins, but the school didn’t waver in their confidence in Muzerall. Had COVID-19 not cancelled the end of the 2019-20 season, the Buckeyes could very well have had another Frozen Four trip under Muzerall, as the team was 22-8-6 and were slated to play in the quarterfinals against Minnesota.
The 2021-22 season is where Ohio State really took off under Muzerall, winning 32 games and their second WCHA Conference Tournament title, which earned the Buckeyes the top-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Ohio State would go on to beat Quinnipiac, Yale, and Minnesota Duluth in the run to their first NCAA title. Since then the Buckeyes have been a fixture in the Frozen Four and National Championship Game.
At this point it almost feels like a given Ohio State and Wisconsin are going to meet in the final game of the women’s college hockey season. The Buckeyes and Badgers have each advanced to the title game in each of the last four seasons, with Wisconsin winning three of those meetings.
Despite the Badgers getting the victory in the majority of those battles, Ohio State has pushed Wisconsin to the limit in each of those games, showing the difference between the programs is razor thin.
If you need more evidence at how impactful Muzerall has been as head coach of the Buckeyes, just look at the Winter Olympics earlier this year. 11 Buckeyes who played under Muzerall were invited to play for their national teams, with eight current and former Buckeyes going on to win medals in Italy.
The most notable of those players were Joy Dunne, Cayla Barnes, and Hannah Bilka, who won gold with Team USA.
What has made Muzerall’s success as head coach of the Buckeyes even more fun to watch is there hasn’t been all the noise off the ice that we have seen with some other Ohio State sports.
Under Jim Tressel there was the Maurice Clarett scandal and then “Tatgate”, which eventually cost Tressel his job. Urban Meyer had the Zach Smith scandal, and Ryan Day had Buckeye Nation ready to fire him after the loss to Michigan in 2024. Basketball dealt with sanctions from Jim O’Brien’s time in charge and last year women’s basketball coach Kevin McGuff was arrested for OVI.
The good news for Ohio State fans is Muzerall isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Prior to this year’s Frozen Four, Muzerall signed a five-year contract extension which will keep her in Columbus through the 2033-34 season.
With the top-caliber players Muzerall recruits, along with the tactics her teams employ on the ice, there is no reason to think the Buckeyes won’t be one of the top teams in the country as long as Muzerall is leading the program.
