Dane Sanzenbacher tied an Ohio State record with four touchdown receptions Saturday against Eastern Michigan.
He shares the record with Terry Glenn and Bob Grimes.
“Sometimes you just … get in the right place at the right time,” Sanzenbacher said.
Sanzenbacher hauled in nine catches for 108 yards.
The nine grabs tie his career high set in last season’s Rose Bowl game against Oregon.
“It’s all according to who is open,” coach Jim Tressel said. “Dane was the guy that popped open.”
Sanzenbacher “popped open” enough to set the record in just less than three quarters of work. The second-team offense entered the game with 1:15 left in the third quarter.
The scores came on receptions of seven, eight, nine and 31 yards.
Sanzenbacher gave a lot of the credit to his quarterback.
“Terrelle (Pryor) put the ball on the money for me,” he said. “I think you saw that throughout the game … (Pryor) is in a situation where he is going to throw it to the open guy.”
The touchdowns not only tied an OSU record but set a personal record for Sanzenbacher.
“This is probably the most I’ve scored (in any game at any level),” he said.
The fact that the first-team offense focused more on the pass than the run helped Sanzenbacher enter the record books.
“When you have more success passing the ball, you need to pass until they can stop it,” senior guard Justin Boren said.
Sanzenbacher agreed.
“On offense, it’s all about taking what the defense gives you, and we did a good job of that today,” he said.
That mentality resulted in 303 yards through the air against EMU, more than one-third of which went to Sanzenbacher.
Through four games this season, Sanzenbacher has 20 receptions for 324 yards and five touchdowns, leading the Buckeyes in all three categories.
He has topped 100 yards receiving twice this season and three times in his career.
“Sometimes I feel like he’s underappreciated, but he is so good and our team knows it,” center Mike Brewster said. “He deserves the recognition.”
But he is not underappreciated by his coach. When told Sanzenbacher caught four touchdowns, Tressel simply smiled and said, “Dane’s good.”
