2B - November 28, 2011
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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Urban Meyer would be goodfor The Game
11 season, Ohio State foot-
ball coach Luke Fickell
wore that same look on
his face - eyes wide and glazed.
You couldn't tell if he was about
to cry or
had already
started.
Fickell
looked that
way when he
wassthrust
into the spot-
light in Chica- TIM
go at Big Ten
Media Days ROHAN
in August,
when he said
he didn't know he was going to
have to answer questions. He was
a deer caught in the headlights of
Ohio State's drama.
On Saturday, his voice was
strong but the expression on his
face gave himself away. After his
team slipped up too manytimes
and lost to Michigan, 40-34, it
was clear Fickell wasn't long for
the Ohio State job.
"LikeI said, it's about the Ohio
State-Michigan (game)," said
Fickell, wearing his signature
look.
"It's been about that since
Sunday," he added, pounding the
table in frustration. It's a rivalry
that prompts table pounding.
Fickell didn't know if he'd be
coaching his players in a bowl
game.
"Whether that's the situation,
those things will be determined
by people beyond me, probably,"
Fickell said.
Reportedly, those people have
already determined that former
Florida coach Urban Meyer will
become Brady Hoke's next nem-
esis in 7
Meyer,
State-D
Columb
follow,
lead an
importa
Then
band w
be tood
Braxtor
spread(
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You I
reactio:
"It
(
The Game. By Tuesday, Always waiting at the end of
should be at the Ohio the season, Ohio State serves as
uke basketball game in Michigan's measuringstick. If
bus, where he'll probably the Buckeyes are down, what
Jim Tressel's and Hoke's height would the Wolverines
d declare: That is the most shoot for?
ant game on theschedule. Now, Brady Hoke will define
Meyer will smile, the himself by how he competes
ill play and everyone will against Urban Meyer. In recruit-
Irunk on the thought of ing. In The Game. In everything.
n Miller running Meyer's During the "10-year war" from
offense to question the 1969 to 1978, when Bo Schem-
bechler did battle with his former
know what Brady Hoke's coach Woody Hayes, the two of
n should be? Bring it on. them hated each other on the
field and were friends off it.
"Your whole life is based
around one game," said Michigan
"s about the historian John U. Bacon in a HBO
documentary on The Game.
)hio State- "Your whole life is devoted to
one purpose and that's to beat the
M ichigan othersguy. Who else in the world
could understand you?"
(gane)." Schembechler held a 5-4-1
advantage during the "War," but
the competitiveness of Bo and
Woody's teams are what cata-
tichigan to reach new pulted the rivalry.
, it needs a strong and While writing the Schem-
'rivalry with Ohio State. bechler's autobiography, Bacon
don't want the Buckeyes to asked Bo 14 months before he
vith sanctions. You don't died, if he had one more week at
see them suffer as much the height of his powers as Michi-
igan has the past three gan's coach, what would he wish
. You want Michigan's for? Without hesitation, Bo said
ted rival to be larger than he'd want just one more week to
Michigan is larger than prepare to play Woody Hayes's
o The Game regains its Buckeyes in The Game.
The second coming of the
Game is more than just 1O-year war could start Monday,
ate dominating Michigan, when Meyer is expected to be
st memory portrays. It's announced as the next Buckeye
wo schools that have been coach. Fickell will be a blip on the
each other for nearly 110 radar.f
nd how they will forever We're moving out of the
to one another. Forever, decade-long "Tressel era," where
ll define one another. the man with wire-rimmed
1
cARLOS OSORIO/AP
Ohio State coach Luke Fickell may have lost his one and only chance to lead Ohio State during The Game.
For A
heights
healthy
Youc
be hit w
want to
as Mich
seasons
most ha
life, sot
life - s
lore.
The
Ohio St
as recer
about t
playing
years ar
be tied:
they wi
glasses, clean gray haircut and
signature vest was unbeatable.
Lloyd Carr's seat got hotter with
each loss in The Game, and a
third-straight embarrassing loss
appeared tobe the final straw in
Rich Rodriguez's termination.
In the dawn of a new era, Hoke
is here to stay, having become the
first coach since Fielding H. Yost
to win 10 games in his first season
as coach in 1901.
Braxton Miller's here to stay,
too. -
The smooth-running, cool
customer slashed Michigan's
defense for 100 rushing yards. He
came advertised as apoor man's
Denard Robinson with aworse
arm, yet the true freshman nearly
made enough plays to knock off
the favored Wolverines.
Had he hit just one of the four
deep passes he overthrew, Ohio
State could've won the game.
DeVier Posey running free with
less than two minutes left should
haunt Ohio State for a while.
"He's got abrightfuture,"
Fickell said of Miller. "But what
you can't teach is that passion and
that desire to be a competitor. In
games like this, you look at, 'Did
he throw the ball well? Or did he
do something else well?' Or do
you just look at somebody and say
they're a competitor?"
Miller will be under the watch-
ful eye of a man who made Tim
Tebow look like more than just
a running quarterback. Meyer's
offensive scheme has worked
wherever he's been, and you can
picture the marquee now: The
tough blue-collar defense of Brady
Hoke's Michigan Wolverines ver-
sus Urban Meyer's greatest-show-
on-turf offense.
Brady and Urban. Urban and
Brady. Two Ohioans forever tied
to The Game, just like Bo and
Woody.
Before he exits stage left, at
least Fickell leaves us with this
pearl of wisdom: "That's what
sports are about, you get knocked
down and you get back up."
Before Woody, Ohio State
was known as "the graveyard of
coaches," for ushering out five dif-
ferent head coaches in11 years.
At 6-6, with sanctions looming,
Ohio State is down again. Hoke
should extenda helping hand -
help Meyer stand and then put up
his dukes.
Because knocking down Ohio
State when they're standing tall
and proud - on top of the world
- will go far in proving just how
powerful Michigan really is.
-Rohan can be reached
at trohan@umich.edu or
on Twitter @TimRohan
0
(Left) Redshirt freshman safety Josh Furman celebrates Michigan's 40-34 victory over Ohio State on Saturday. (Right) Senior defensive tackle Mike Martin meets a fellow Michigan student after the game had ended at Michigan Stadium.
MICHIGAN
From Page 1B
scamper negated due to penalty,
leading to the Michigan field
goal and one final Ohio State
chance.
The Buckeyes almost capi-
talized - Miller overthrew a
deep pass to wide-open receiver
DeVier Posey with less than a
minute to go.
The next play was Avery's
interception.
The play capped an uncon-
ventiot
Michig
a dom
mance
defens
"I
it
The
first q
nal performance for this ines an early lead.
fan team, one defined by Early in the fourth quarter,
inating offensive perfor- with Michigan up just six, the
and a few opportunistic defense sacked Miller on a 3rd-
ive plays. and-2 from the two yard-line,
forcing a field goal.
The Wolverines never relin-
quished the lead after that, as
f I CouldpUt Robinson drove Michigan 75
into words, yards for a touchdown while
taking four minutes off the
I would." clock.
It doesn't matter how it's
added up, it equals one thing,
the thing Hoke has said since
defense's safety in the he got here, the reason for his
uarter gave the Wolver- countdown clocks. Michigan
finally "beat Ohio."
"It was a team win," Molk
said. "It wasn't just an offensive
victory, it was a team victory
against Ohio State."
Days since Michigan beat
Ohio State: 0.
Thornton Wilder
andKenLudwig's
adaptatlonof
DON'T WANT TO
FORGET THIS EDITION
OF THE GAME?
You don't have to.
And you shouldn't - rushing
the field doesn't happen too often.
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(Top) Redshirt sophomore running back Fitzgerald Toussaint and (bottom)
junior quarterback Denard Robinson combined for 290 rushing yards.
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