Another undefeated showdown in The Game
COVER PHOTO: Former OSU offensive lineman Marcus Hall gives his two-finger salute to the Michigan faithful as he's escorted off the field after being ejected early in the second quarter of the 2013 game. The Buckeyes would win, 42-21. Picture by Jason Mowry/Columbus Wired.
Another year, another undefeated version of the 118th rendition of the bitter rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan.
On Saturday, the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten) will invade Michigan Stadium to go toe-to-toe against the No. 3 Michigan Wolverines (11-0, 8-0) for a chance at redemption after losing the last two matchups.
For only the fifth time since 1935, both teams will once again come in unblemished, and for the third time ranked Nos. 2 and 3 in the nation.
This year’s contest, though, is carrying not only a lot on the line in terms of the postseason but also a lot more baggage.
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is ending the regular season the same way he started it: with a three-game suspension.
He was hit with the first three games because he committed impermissible recruiting and coaching violations during the COVID dead period for not only supposedly buying potential recruits hamburgers at a local Ann Arbor bar, but for Harbaugh not cooperating with an NCAA investigation, which was deemed more serious.
Derrick Crawford, the NCAA’s vice president of hearing operations, issued a statement where he said, in part, "The Michigan infractions case is related to impermissible on and off-campus recruiting during the COVID-19 dead period and impermissible coaching activities — not a cheeseburger.”
That led to the first three-game slap on the wrist.
Then came the alleged biggie that Michigan had committed major infractions when recruiting analyst Connor Stalions was attending and recording opposing teams in person, which is a no-no according to NCAA bylaws.
Then came a heated back-and-forth between the Big Ten and Michigan powers-that-be where punishments were being considered by the conference and lawsuits were threatened by the school so much to the point that the Michigan House of Representatives tried to step in and strong-arm Tony Petitti that if a premature disciplinary measure was handed down to Harbaugh without full due process, they would do everything in their power to stop it.
The school even filed an injunction where a court hearing was scheduled on Nov. 10 to stop any sort of retribution against Michigan’s leading man. At that point, it was reported by FOX Sports’ Bruce Feldman that the conference slapped down a mountain of evidence that made Harbaugh and the Wolverines back down, hence accepting the second suspension.
He will not be on the sidelines for Saturday’s game.
When both coaches were asked about “respecting” each other when it came to the rivalry, both deflected.
“I think with everything going on, and the things that are out there, we've just kind of stayed away from all the distractions we have and just kind of focused on our team," Day said on Tuesday. "I think our guys have done a good job of it. I've talked to them a couple times about what's gone on this season and going into The Game, but they're focused on this game. They're focused on this season. They're focused on their preparation. And we're just going to continue that."
Harbaugh was asked right off the rip during his Monday presser where his respect lies with Day.
“Um,” he said with a five-second pause, “it’s, uh, all about our preparation for Ohio. You know, the days, the minutes, the hours, everything leading up to this game, um, you know that’s where our focus is. Preparing ourselves, planning, gonna practice then execute. So, uh, I mean, anything else is irrelevant and when you get into this kind of big game week.”
On the line at the very least is a Big Ten East Division championship and spot in the conference championship game next weekend against Iowa. Even more so is a spot in the last-ever, four-team college football playoff, so long as the winner of The Game gets a win against the Hawkeyes.
HISTORY
The Maize and Blue will also be looking to do something against the Scarlet and Gray that they haven’t done in 26 years: win three in a row, which happened from 1995 - ‘97. Michigan won that last game, 20-14, and climaxed the season with a win over Washington State in the Rose Bowl that gave them a split of the national championship with Nebraska.
The cherry on top of that year was cornerback Charles Woodson - a native Ohioan - bringing home the Heisman Trophy a few weeks earlier. He is not only the last defensive back in the FBS to win the award but also the last Michigan player to do so.
Since that game, though, the Buckeyes have largely owned the Wolverines with a 17-6 record in 24 tries. OSU’s 37-7 win in 2010 was wiped off the books due to NCAA sanctions for “Tattoo Gate” and the two did not play in 2020 because Michigan had too many COVID cases which affected their ability to play.
Ohio State won eight in a row during that stretch including all seven under former head coach Urban Meyer (2012 - ‘18) and current head coach Ryan Day’s first game against the Wolverines in 2019.
But Michigan owns the overall record, 60-51-6, and is the only conference team that can boast of having a winning record against Ohio State. The Wolverines can also boast of becoming the first college football team to have 1,000 victories, which they earned in a 31-24 win against Maryland last weekend.
Since the first time the two arch-rivals squared up on the gridiron in 1897, they haven’t met all too often both being unbeaten. And since 1935, when the pair began consistently playing their stanza as the last game of the regular season, this will be the first time ever that they’ve met back-to-back without a loss and will be the second season in a row where Ohio State is No. 2 and Michigan is No. 3.
There have been four other occasions in the last 88 years when they’ve both been undefeated: 1970, 1973, 2006 and 2022.
Until last year, Ohio State hadn’t been beaten by Michigan in those unbeaten games.
On the fourth Saturday of November 1969, the Buckeyes were the defending national champs, riding a 22-game win streak and had not lost since Oct. 28, 1967. That all changed on Nov. 22 when first-year Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler’s 12th-rated, 7-2 team upset No. 1 Ohio State in Ann Arbor, 24-12.
The next season, the undefeated fifth-rated Buckeyes got revenge by beating the unbeaten, fourth-ranked Wolverines in Columbus, 20-9.
Three years later, the two teams were tied at 10 with one minute to go. Michigan’s Mike Lantry had just missed a go-ahead 58-yard field goal to the left by mere inches. On the ensuing play, though, OSU quarterback Greg Hare threw an interception to defensive back Tom Drake, who returned it to the OSU 33.
With under 30 seconds left, the Wolverines lined up on 3rd & 4 for another potential game-winning field goal, this one a little closer from 44 yards out. Once again, Lantry would miss, this time to the right.
Buckeye head coach Woody Hayes still wouldn’t give up and tried three straight passes, all of which were incomplete. The clock hit zeros and the tie was officially in the books with both teams finishing the regular season 7-0-1 in the conference.
The fireworks didn’t stop there, though. At the time, the Big Ten had a rule that only one team, typically the conference champion, could play in a postseason game and that game was the Rose Bowl. And only two years prior to that, the rule was that regardless of how one team’s season fared over another, no school could play in the Rose Bowl two years in a row.
However, the rule was nixed in 1971 and opened the door for a vote by the Big Ten’s athletic directors. By a one-vote margin, they decided to send the Buckeyes to Pasadena, Calif., despite the fact they had already played there the previous season.
Schembechler was furious and, according to several accounts, viscerally despised the vote to the day he died.
Fast forward 33 years later and the third undefeated showdown happened in 2006.
However, there was also drama wrapped within the sheets of this bedtime story. This drama, though, would precede The Game, not follow it, when Schembechler passed away the night before and both sides entered with a heavy heart.
Bo was a native Ohioan who had not only played for Woody at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1949 and ‘50 where Hayes was the Redhawks’ head coach, but had been one of Woody’s assistant coaches at OSU in 1951 as well as from 1958 - ‘62.
That year, No. 1 Ohio State managed to fend off a late game comeback by No. 2 Michigan to win the Showdown in the ‘Shoe, 42-39, which was the first time ever both met as the top two teams in the country.
Last year, though, Michigan finally won an undefeated matchup as the second-ranked Buckeyes were handed a 45-23 loss by the third-ranked Wolverines in Ohio Stadium, the most lopsided beatdown the Maize and Blue had given the Scarlet and Gray in Columbus dating back to a 58-6 thrashing in 1946.
MATCHUP
This year, points could come at a premium, a la 2016, when both teams came in for the very first time ranked Nos. 2 and 3. Both teams were sporting a loss at that point but the CFP committee had the Buckeyes at No. 2 and Wolverines at No. 3, the first time ever they were ranked as such coming into The Game.
Ohio State needed 10 unanswered fourth quarter points against a staunch Michigan defense to tie the game with a Tyler Durbin 23-yard field goal with time expiring to take it into the first-ever overtime game in the history’s rivalry.
The Buckeyes would win 30-27 in double OT when running back Curtis Samuel ran a sweep left from the right slot into the end zone for the game-clinching score.
That victory wouldn’t be without its fair share of hullabaloo when Buckeye QB J.T. Barrett slammed into the line of scrimmage on 4th & 1 and got a first down by a nose hair that Wolverine faithful still say to this day did not get past the line of gain.
Nonetheless, the Buckeyes got the win.
And this year, The Game could potentially go the same way. That year, both teams were defensively excellent with Michigan ranked as the second-best overall defense in the country and the Buckeyes sat at No. 4.
Coming into this one, the Wolverines own the best defense in the FBS, allowing 234 yards per game while the Buckeyes sit No. 3 at 253 ypg.
Both teams are crazy vaunted against the pass as the top two teams in the country with the Buckeyes owning the top spot at 144.4 yards allowed per game while the Wolverines are nipping at their heels at 144.8 ypg.
Although Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy had been wildly efficient this year and was second in the FBS with a 187.2 rating before last weekend’s game against the Terrapins. He now sits fifth at 178.3, still good for first place in the B1G. OSU’s Kyle McCord currently ranks second in the conference at 163.2 and 11th nationally.
Ultimately, though, the difference could be the run. Michigan has only allowed 90 ypg while Ohio State has allowed 108. The Wolverines sit third in the conference at 171 ypg allowed on the ground while the Buckeyes are eighth at 145. Michigan RB Blake Corum is second in the league in overall yards at 888, averaging 80 per game. OSU’s TreVeyon Henderson is fourth in the B1G with 794 rushing yards but leads the conference with 99 ypg.
Day called Henderson the difference maker in how the offense has looked since he came back against Wisconsin on Oct. 28.
“Certainly Tre coming back has made an impact on that,” he said on Tuesday. “Identifying each week what’s worked for us and what hasn’t and fixing those things over time getting better, the infusion of Tre has certainly helped.”
Ultimately, Day said the key to winning was allowing his team to play with emotion but not letting those emotions sway the outcome.
“I think that’s important, you have to play with emotion but can’t let emotion play with you,” he said on Tuesday. “You have to have your emotions in check, which isn’t easy in a game like this because as we all know with the magnitude of it all. But it’s something we identified in the offseason and we’ll talk about this week.”
The Game kicks off at noon and will be aired on FOX.