4B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - November 26, 2001
0
OHIO STATE 26, MICHIGAN 20
/ \ A { A! 11TAT AT AI\
GAME STATISTICS
Team Stats
First Downs
Rushes/Yards
Passing Yards
Offensive Plays
Total Offense
Return Yards
Comp/Att/Int
Punts/Avg
Fumbles/Lost
Penalties/Yards
Time of Poss
OSu
11
50/137
118
68
255
38
11/18/1
11/37.5
1/0
9/66
33:51
MICH
18
35/117
206
82
323
51
21/47/4
7/41.1
2/1
6/30
26:09
Rookie coach takes
Big House by storm
O H IO S TAT E
PASSING
Player
Krenzel
Totals
RUSHING
Player
Wells
Ross
Martin
Team
Krenzel
Totals
RECEIVING
Player
Sanders
Martin
Hartsock
Jenkins
Gamble
Vance
Ross
Totals
C-A
11-18
11-18
Yds TD
118 O
118 0
Att
25
16
6
1
2
50
No.
3
3
1
11
Yds
129
9
5
-2
-4
164
Yds
38
23
18
14
12
10
3
118
Avg
5.2
0.6
0.8
-2.0
-2.0
2.7
Avg
12.7
7.7
18.0
14.0
12.0
10.0
3.0
10.7
Lg
46
6
5
0
0
46
Lg
17
10
18
14
12
10
3
18
Int
1
TD
3
0
O
0
0
3
TD
0
0
0
0
O
0
0
0
By Jeff Phillips
Daily Sports Editor
On Jan. 18 at a home basketball
game against Michigan, Ohio State
coach Jim Tressel told the Buckeyes'
fans that they would be proud of their
football team when it faced Michigan
in Ann Arbor. After the Buckeyes' 26-
20 victory over the Wolverines on Sat-
urday, Ohio State fans are proud of
their team as well as their Michigan-
slaying coach Tressel. He called his
shot and hit it out of the park.
"He is no prophet, buthe backed up
his words," said Don Bryant, father of
Ohio State flanker Ricky Bryant.
"That's been a long time coming for
the fans at Ohio State, so you've got to
love it."
While Tressel's choice of words
didn't guarantee a victory, the pressure
was on him with four losses coming
into the Michigan game.
"We didn't promise any wins, we
promised that you would be proud of
us and I think that whether we won
this game or not, you would have been
proud of us," Tressel said after the
game.
In a one-game season, Ohio State
shocked the second-largest crowd in
Michigan history by flying out to a 23-
0 lead at halftime. They played with
passion that would make any Buck-
eyes' fan proud.
Ohio State running back Jonathan
Wells ran as if he had a chip on his
shoulder. Wells and his offensive line
put the Michigan defense into submis-
sion by running for 122 yards and
three touchdowns, all in the first half.
Wells simply outran the Wolverines'
defense on two breakaway runs, where
he had been caught from behind in
previous games.
"I give credit in the offensive line
and my confidence grew with every
carry and I just wanted to go out there
and help my team," Wells said.
The Buckeyes' vigor was
unmatched by the favorite Michigan. It
had been 14 years since the last time
Ohio State had defeated the Wolver-
ines at home.
The team's play was surprising to
nearly everyone - except of course,
Tressel.
"We did the things we needed to do
today to win and it just happened to be
against Michigan," Tressel said.
The business-like manner with
which Tressel has handled the Michi-
gan game made it unclear as to just
how much the victory meant to Ohio
State. But for anyone who stayed to
watch the Buckeyes' post-game cele-
bration, it was obvious.
Chants of "Tressel! Tressel!" filled
Michigan Stadium as players danced
on the field took turns carrying the
Ohio State flag. The Buckeyes
attempted to jump into the stands a la
the Green Bay Packers' "Lambeau
Leap," but were pulled down by
Michigan Stadium security. Some fans
PUNTING
Player
Groom
Team
Totals
KICKOFF RETURNS
Player No.
Hall 1
Childress 1
Total 2
PUNT RETURNS
Player No.
Vance 3
Totals 3
DEFENSE
Player
Cooper
Anderson
Ross
Wilhelm
Smith
Grant
Doss
Bullard
Cheatwood
Fox
Collins
Nickey
McNutt
Jacobs
Reynolds
Peterson
Allen
No. Yds Avg Lg
10 413 41.3 66
1 0 0 0
11 413 37.5 66
Yds
27
3
30
Yds
8
8
Solo
8
8
7
6
5
4
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
Yds
71
4
0
O
0
0
75
Avg Lg
27.0 27
3.0 3
15.0 27
Avg Lg
2.7 4
2.7 4
Asst l
0
1
0
0
O
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
TD
O
0
0
TD
O
O
Tot
8
8
7
7
5
4
4
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
TD
O ~
O
O
O
ro
0.
0
0
DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel celebrates with one of his players following Saturday's 26-20 win over Michigan.
even rushed onto the field. The excite-
ment of the fans wasn't lost on Tressel.
"I don't know how many tickets we
had, but I think they did a tremendous
job," Tressel said.
With the win, Tressel did what even
Ohio State coaching legend Woody
Hayes couldn't do by defeating Michi-
gan in his first attempt.
It remains to be seen whether Tres-
sel's legend will go the way of former
head coach John Cooper or the way of
Hayes and Earl Bruce, but the win is
one that Ohio State fans will enjoy for
the next 362 days and beyond.
Michigan's second half
still chock-full of errors
PASS DEFENSE
Player
Doss
Anderson
Fox
Ross
Grant
Cheatwood
Totals
Int
2
1
0
0
0
4
Lng
36
4
O
0
36
Brk-up
2
1
1
7
c
c
c
c
c
c
By Jon Schwartz
Daily Sports Editor
M I C H I G A N
PASSING
Player
Navarre
Totals
aRUSHING
Player
Askew
Perry
Bell
Navarre
Gonzales
Team
Totals
RECEIVING
Player
Walker
Bell
Bellamy
Seymour
Butler
Askew
Totals
C-A
21/47
21/47
Att
6
17
2
8
1
1
35
No.
15
2
1
Yds
53
46
21
12
1
-16
117
Yds
160
17
19
5
5
0
206
No.
7
7
Yds
206
206
Avg
8.8
2.7
10.5
1.5
1.0
-16.0
3.3
Avg
10.7
8.5
19.0
5.0
5.0
0.0
9.8
Yds
288
288
TD
2
2
Lg
30
7
16
14
0
30
Lg
47
9
19
5
5
47
Int
4
4
TD
0
1
0
0
O
O
O
2
0
0
0
0
0
2
PUNTING
Player
Epstein
Totals
KICKOFF RETURNS
Player No.
Howard 2
Totals 2
PUNT RETURNS
Player No.
Walker 4.
Jordan 1
Totals 5
DEFENSE
Player
Hobson
Brackins
Foote
Drake
June
Heuer
Howard
Bowman
Lazarus
LeSueur
Williams
Shaw
Spytek
Orr
Diggs
Goodwin
Rumishek
Frysinger
Askew
Navarre
Dubuc
Combs
Jordan
Avg Lg
41.1 51
41.1 51
Don't call it a comeback. Because it
didn't happen.
The Wolverines were looking to make his-
tory. They'd never come back from 23 down
at halftime. Let alone against Ohio State.
This week, many Michigan players and
fans will look to the second half of Satur-
day's game and claim
that Michigan blew its
chance for the win by FOOTBALL
getting down 23. While Notebook
that's true, there was
still a lot to be desired from Michigan's sec-
ond-half performance.
Despite a final score of 26-20 (a 20-3
Michigan advantage in the second half,) the
Wolverines had many problems executing
when the game was still in reach.
There was Marquise Walker's inexplicable
drop in the endzone. Down 23-7 late in the
third, quarterback John Navarre threw from
the 10-yard line. The ball hit Walker in the
chest but bounced off. On the next play,
Hayden Epstein missed a 27-yard field goal.
For the half, Michigan was just 3-5 from
the red zone. Clawing back, that will rarely
cut it.
"We did a great job in the second half of
executing, but we weren't perfect," said tail-
back Chris Perry. "You're never going be
perfect, but in that case, we needed to be
perfect and we didn't do that."
Much of Michigan's second-half advan-
tage was due to a conservative style of play
by Ohio State. The Buckeyes played the half
not to lose, which was good enough, consid-
ering the lead. The offense couldn't get any-
thing going - due, in part, to an injury to
running back Jonathan Wells - but the
defense made the stops when it had to, inter-
cepting two more Navarre passes.
"In the second half," said receiver Ronald
Bellamy, "we said we wanted to play togeth-
er, to make some plays, to get back to the
game because we knew we would get the
ball back. In the second half, we fought
hard, but give credit to O-State. They fought
hard, too.
"Execution. That's what it comes down to.
Whoever executes the plays wins. They exe-
cuted more plays than we did."
"We came out here today and we played a
great team like Michigan and you know that
no matter what happened in the first half, we
knew we had to come out here and play a
good second half of football because it's
always a game in the end," said Ohio State
quarterback Craig Krenzel.
OPPORTUNITY BLOCKED: Michigan has
worked this year to dispel the notion that
blocked punts are noteworthy occurrences.
Seven times this season, the Michigan punt-
rush team has gotten a hand in front of a
punted ball, often resulting in a momentum
surge for the Wolverines.
So Saturday afternoon, when Michigan
didn't block Ohio State's punt with 20 sec-
onds left in the game, it was understandable
to see many disappointed Michiganfans,
people who have forgotten over the course
of the season how tough it is to get a block.
Anthony Jordan did get one block for the
Wolverines in the fourth quarter, which led
to a touchdown. But he knew that his efforts
weren't good enough.
"I'm really disappointed that we couldn't
get the last one," Jordan said. "The first one
was good but one of the last ones could have
really helped dig us out of the whole."
While Walker has been one of the
Wolverines' stars on the punt rush, he spent
the entire game returning the kicks.
"I'm not surprised because Marquise is a
guy that can do a lot of things once he gets
the ball," Jordan said. "Since we were rush-
ing 10 people, we needed someone back
there who could try to get at least some pos-
itive yards back there.
"We did talk about bringing him up and
rushing 11, we just felt it was best because
we have a lot of other guys who have
blocked punts this year. We feel that we have
a good punt rush team, with him back there
also."
CENTRAL FLORIDA, HERE THEY COME: With
the loss, Illinois clinched the Big Ten cham-
pionship outright, and will receive the con-
ference's BCS berth. By beating Ohio State,
Michigan would have tied for the title and
gone to either the Sugar, Fiesta or Orange
Bowl.
The Wolverines will probably head to
either the Outback or Citrus bowl, both of
which are on Jan. 1, 2002.
While Michigan is the Big Ten's No. 2
team, which should send it to Orlando for
the Citrus Bowl, the Wolverines were there
last year, and twice in the last three years.
Therefore, they might head to Tampa for the
Outback Bowl.
"We're still going to go to a bowl game,
we still have to practice, we still have to
play," said offensive lineman Tony Pape.
"It's a tough loss, but you've just got to
move on."
Yds Avg Lg
34 17.0 17
34 17.0 17
TD
TO
O
O
0
0
Yds
5
12
17
Solo
9
6
7
7
6
4
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Yds
0
0
Avg
1.3
12.0
3.4
Lg
5
12
12
Asst
1
4
0
O
1
0
0
0
O
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Tot
10
10
8
7
7
4
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
d dsRgsRsIEd MsRSTALL/Daily
Brandon Lloyd couldn't get past Michigan's defense, but he helped lead Illinois to a Big Ten championship.
PASS DEFENSE
Player
Howard
June
Int
1
0
Lg
O
0
Brk-up
2
1
TD
O
0
GOPAL
Continued from Page 11B
Fighting Illini, 45-20, on Sept. 29 in the Big Ten opener for
both teams. As if on cue, Michigan proceeded to lose to.
Michigan State and Ohio State, while Illinois managed to win
the rest of its games. So Illinois gets to go to the BCS and
Michigan gets to go to a meaningless bowl game in Florida
against some mediocre team from the SEC.
Seeing a Michigan victim backdoor its way to a Big Ten
title three years ago had to be bad enough for Michigan fans.
But to have this happen three times in four years is probably
more than the average Michigan fan can (or should) take. To
top things off, last year, Michigan thoroughly dominated Pur-
due before collapsing in the second half - the Boilermakers
escaped with a 32-31 victory and ended up going to the Rose
Bowl.
It's one thing to lose out to a clearly superior team (the
1998 loss to Ohio State is a great example). In that situation,
you can't really have any regrets - the better team won, and
there's nothing more to say about it.
On the flip side, having to watch a team that you have
already defeated reap the benefits of your misfortune has to
be one of the most aggravating scenarios in sports, but it's
something that Michigan will have to deal with again this
season. While the Fighting Illini play against a high-profile
opponent in either the Orange, Sugar or Fiesta Bowl, Michi-
Let's do the time warp
Before Saturday, Ohio State hadn't come to
Ann Arbor and beaten Michigan since 1987.
Here's what's changed since then:
Then
Now
PLAYERS OF THE GAME:
unso~M : i me
Bush is V.P.
New Coke
M. Jackson: "Bad"
Beverly Hills Cop II
Joe Montana
"Livin' on a Prayer"
B. Knight: national cha
Miami (Fla.) is No. 1
McGwire: Top rookie
Metal Gear
Bush is President
Code Red
M. Jackson: "Invincible"
Scary Movie 2
Jeff Garcia
"Livin' it Up"
imp B. Knight: Texan
Miami (Fla.) is No. 1
McGwire: Retired
Metal Gear Solid 2
tl >
1? ~ ~~L~W ~1.0