2B — November 30, 2015
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Jim Harbaugh faces a tough task to get his team back atop the Big Ten.
The state of
the rivalry
Y
ears have now passed
since Lloyd Carr and Jim
Tressel led the Michigan
and Ohio
State football
teams,
respectively.
One fall
Saturday
during those
days, I asked
my dad a
question:
“Dad,
when does
Michigan
play Ohio State?”
“The last game of the season,”
he said. “Always the last game of
the season, because it’s for the
Big Ten championship.”
It has rarely been that way
since 2007.
Every single year during
the “Ten Year War” from 1969
to 1978, Michigan and Ohio
State played in the last game
of the season for the Big Ten
championship — meaning each
could clinch at least a share of
the title with a win. For 15 of Bo
Schembechler’s 21 years leading
the Wolverines — and six of
Lloyd Carr’s 12 — the stakes were
the same. That was the way they
wanted it.
“The only way to go in the
(Big Ten) is to come down
to Michigan-Ohio State,”
Schembechler said after his team
beat the Buckeyes to win the Big
Ten in 1986. “Anytime you play
this game, there are so many
things hanging in the balance. I
just hope it stays like that.”
Eight years, five head coaches
and one national championship
(between both teams) after Carr
left, it hasn’t happened again.
This weekend, Michigan and
Ohio State fans anticipated a
return to their old tradition: the
annual, smashmouth, Bo-versus-
Woody slugfest to decide the Big
Ten championship, which they
haven’t played for since 2007.
Instead, there were a
couple of wrinkles when the
Wolverines and Buckeyes
battled Saturday at Michigan
Stadium. First, the game wasn’t
much of a slugfest — Ohio
State rolled, 42-13, in the most
lopsided matchup not involving
Rich Rodriguez since 1968.
Second, there was more to the
story: The winner didn’t win the
Big Ten title, or even the East
division. The winner had to turn
on the TV and root for Penn
State to upset Michigan State in
East Lansing.
The Nittany Lions didn’t, so
Michigan and Ohio State will
be sitting at home Saturday
watching the Spartans play
Iowa for the conference
championship.
This is the new reality for
these teams. As much as they
long for a second coming of the
“Ten Year War,” the Big Ten
doesn’t work that way anymore.
Even if the cards align, a win
in “The Game” gets you only
the right to play in the Big Ten
Championship Game.
It’s clear by now that Mark
Dantonio’s Michigan State team
isn’t going anywhere. The jury
is still out on James Franklin at
Penn State. Other teams could
play spoiler every so often, too.
Michigan’s struggles under
Rodriguez and Brady Hoke,
as well as Ohio State’s NCAA
sanctions, have shaken things
up over the past decade. This
year, both were near their top
form, coming into their matchup
both ranked in the top 10 for the
first time since the “Game of the
Century” in 2006.
Even in spite of that success,
the Spartans stole the spotlight.
They, too, will finish ahead of
Michigan in the standings. In
each of the five years the Big
Ten Championship Game has
existed, the Wolverines have sat
at home and watched. To make
matters worse, at least one of
their rivals has been in four of
those games.
This year, two roadblocks
stood between Michigan and
its first Big Ten title since 2004.
After Saturday, one seemed
tougher than the other.
Michigan competed with
Michigan State this season
before losing, of course, on a
fluke play at the end. For all the
hype surrounding Harbaugh and
Meyer throughout the past year,
the Spartans emerged at the end,
knocking off both on the final
plays of both games.
Then there are the Buckeyes,
who showed Saturday they’re
still further ahead of the
Wolverines. Ohio State rolled
over Michigan for 376 rushing
yards at 6.8 per carry, scoring 42
points for the third straight year.
The Wolverines knew “The
Game” would be a measuring
stick at the end of the season,
whether they came in 0-11, 11-0
or 9-2.
They have made more
progress this season than they
showed Saturday, but with that
comes a letdown from the high
expectations they set.
“Very proud of the team, the
way they’ve worked, the way
they’ve progressed,” Harbaugh
said Saturday. “We’ll just stay at
that. Closed quite a bit of ground.
Still more ground to close on, but
knowing our team, they’ll stay
with it.”
They’ll have to, because
winning the Big Ten has never
been tougher. The football
world tried all year to boil the
conference down to Harbaugh
vs. Meyer, but the rest of the
league will have something
to say about that. It won’t be
that easy, as it was with Bo vs.
Woody, or even as easy as it was
10 years ago.
I didn’t realize my dad was
overstating it when he told me
Michigan played Ohio State
in the last game of the season
for the Big Ten championship.
It really did happen that way,
pretty much every year.
But those days are long gone,
and there’s a long way to go for
the two rivals to recapture them.
Lourim can be reached
at jlourim@umich.edu and
on Twitter @jakelourim.
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
Five Things We Learned
By MAX COHEN
Managing Sports Editor
By the end of Saturday’s game,
most of the remaining fans in the
Big House wore red, and their
voices were louder than those of
the Michigan fans. The game, a
42-13 victory by Ohio State, was
nothing short of a beatdown.
And with that, the Wolverines’
surprising season ended with
a thud. Here are five things
we learned from Saturday’s
blowout:
1. Michigan still has ground to
gain on its rivals.
Entering
Saturday’s
game,
the gap between Ohio State and
Michigan, at least in the College
Football Playoff rankings, was
razor-thin. The Wolverines were
ranked 10th in the country, and
the Buckeyes were ranked eighth.
Ohio State’s superiority, it
appears, is actually quite large.
The Buckeyes bested Michigan
in nearly every facet of the
game Saturday. They rushed
for 369 yards, running the ball
mercilessly through the middle
of
the
Wolverines’
defense.
Michigan didn’t have a prayer.
The
gap
between
the
Wolverines
and
their
other
chief rival, Michigan State, was
smaller when they played last
month. The Spartans won the
game on the infamous botched
punt, a play that wouldn’t have
happened again if they simulated
the game a thousand more times.
But Michigan State has surged
ever since that near defeat. The
Spartans will play for a Big Ten
championship next weekend in
Indianapolis, a chance Michigan
hasn’t had since the league
championship game was created
five years ago.
The Wolverines still have a
long way to go.
2. Ohio State is still very good.
Reports of the Buckeyes’
demise
after
their
loss
to
Michigan State last weekend
were
debunked
by
their
performance
Saturday.
Ohio
State looked like a very good
football team, not one that was
riddled by turmoil in the locker
room and dissatisfaction with
the coaching staff.
The
Buckeyes
closed
out
Michigan easily in the second
half, outscoring the Wolverines,
28-3. If any Michigan fans were
hoping Ohio State was on the
decline, they were disappointed
Saturday.
3. The injuries to Michigan’s
defensive line were too much
to overcome.
The Wolverines lost three
players on their defensive line to
season-ending injuries during
the course of the 2015 campaign.
First came sophomore defensive
tackle Bryan Mone, who broke
his ankle during fall camp.
Then came senior defensive
end
Mario
Ojemudia,
who
suffered an Achilles injury
against
Maryland.
Redshirt
junior defensive tackle Ryan
Glasgow rounded out the trio
by suffering a pectoral injury
in Michigan’s blowout victory
against Rutgers.
At first, the injuries were
manageable.
The
Wolverines
recorded three straight shutouts
earlier in the season, and the
front seven played a large role.
But after Glasgow’s injury, the
depth in the front seven started
to wear thin.
Michigan allowed more than
300 yards on the ground in two
of the last three games of the
regular season. The Wolverines
capitalized on Indiana’s porous
defense on the first occasion, but
that wasn’t the case against Ohio
State. Michigan couldn’t score
frequently enough to keep the
game close. Injuries to the front
seven made their mark.
4. Jake Rudock can’t have a
happy ending.
Rudock didn’t deserve the
fate that befell him in the fourth
quarter of Saturday’s game. His
shoulder injury, courtesy of a
crushing blow from high school
teammate Joey Bosa, ended
his regular-season career at
Michigan.
For
the
last
month
or
so, Rudock had carried the
Wolverines. When the running
game wasn’t working and the
defense struggled, Rudock was
sharp. He surpassed 250 passing
yards for the fourth straight
week Saturday, marking a sharp
turn from the beginning of
the season when his frequent
interceptions hurt Michigan.
Rudock isn’t unfamiliar with
sad endings. He ended his career
at Iowa on the bench, choosing
to transfer instead of being the
backup.
On a day that started off with
his family receiving more cheers
than any other on Senior Day,
the end wasn’t what Rudock had
hoped for.
5. Bold prediction: Michigan
will win in either Columbus
or East Lansing next season.
The
Wolverines
face
a
daunting schedule next season.
They will travel to Columbus,
East Lansing and Iowa City to
face teams currently ranked in
the top 10. If Michigan loses
all three of those contests,
as might be expected, the
Wolverines’ record would not
reflect any improvement from
this season’s.
But Michigan showed that it
had a knack for hanging close
in road games this season. Even
at Utah, the lone road game the
Wolverines
lost,
Michigan’s
margin of defeat was just seven.
The team did not lose a single
Big Ten road game and, more
impressively, persevered in close
road contests.
A punch in the gut
T
hey unfurled the sign in
the middle of the fourth
quarter, with Ohio State
leading Michigan, 42-13.
Generally, signs are harmless
pieces of
paper that
can be
ripped to
shreds by the
human hand
in a matter
of seconds.
But if a
sign could
ever punch
someone in
the gut and
knock an entire fan base to the
ground, it was this one.
In the middle of the Buckeye
fan section in the upper half
of the south end zone, an Ohio
State fan named Rocky showed
off the sign. Its background was
scarlet, the writing on top white.
“WELCOME HOME COACH
HARBAUGH.”
Around the sign, Ohio State
fans chanted “OH-IO” and
revealed that, no, they still
do not give a damn about the
whole state of Michigan.
But that sign. Ones with
similar messages have appeared
all over Ann Arbor this fall, on
ATM machines, barber shops
and restaurants. Michigan
was back, baby. And it was all
because of Harbaugh, the savior
who grabbed the Wolverines
from the fiery depths of a 5-7
season and lifted them to 9-3.
This sign, though, was
different. It was an open
mocking of Michigan fans in
their weakest moment.
Much of the last year had
been like a dream. First,
Harbaugh came to Ann Arbor
last December, defying logic
and turning away NFL money
to follow his heart. Then, the
Wolverines started to put
things together on the football
field in ways nobody imagined,
shutting out three consecutive
opponents on their way to a 5-1
record heading into a matchup
with Michigan State.
That game, particularly its
ending, was no dream. But
like the rest of the season, it
wasn’t rooted in reality. It was a
nightmare.
Saturday was no dream, either.
It was a dose of reality, a bucket
of water to the face. The sign
hanging proudly in Michigan
Stadium was the final blow.
Michigan, for the first time
this season, looked completely
out of sync in most facets of the
game. The rush defense, among
the best in the country, could
not have stopped a 5-year old
from getting into Rick’s. The
rush offense couldn’t do much
of anything, either. Players not
named Jabrill Peppers rushed
for 28 yards on 18 carries.
Urban Meyer, the coach
Harbaugh was supposed to battle
in close games for the foreseeable
future — like Bo Schembechler
did with Woody Hayes decades
ago — won the first battle
decisively. His team pounded
the ball down the middle of
Michigan’s defense, beating
Harbaugh at his own game.
Across from Meyer, on the
other sideline, was Jake Rudock
— the guy who has improbably
taken his place beside Harbaugh
as the second-most beloved
Wolverine. He finished the final
regular-season game of his
college career on the bench. He
was smacked by his former high
school teammate Joey Bosa and
suffered a shoulder injury.
Transfer quarterback John
O’Korn, another St. Thomas
Aquinas alum and possibly
Michigan’s next quarterback,
stayed with Rudock while
he was on the training table.
Shane Morris spent some time
consoling Rudock, too. Graham
Glasgow and Ben Braden came
over for hugs and words of
encouragement, and Patrick
Kugler gave him a pat on the
head.
But all Rudock could do was
watch, his left arm seemingly
immobile, as his team continued
to collapse. Bosa struck again,
tipping a pass from backup
quarterback Wilton Speight
and intercepting it. He rumbled
to Michigan’s nine-yard line.
The outcome had already been
decided.
Harbaugh, the man whose
every move has been followed
since his hire, didn’t say much
after the game. Like he has every
week, he said the team’s focus
remains on getting better and
improving next time. The ground
between Michigan and its rivals
has gotten smaller, he said.
The outcome wasn’t one the
Wolverines expected at the
half. Then, in what seems like a
lifetime ago, Michigan trailed
by just four. The Wolverines’
offense matched the Buckeyes’,
and Michigan’s defense stopped
Ohio State on occasion.
“We felt like we could win
it,” Harbaugh said.
Few things could have put
a damper on the Wolverines’
season. As Chris Wormley said
after the game, nobody believed
in Michigan going into the
season, except for the players
and coaches on the team. But
somehow, the Wolverines gave
their fans hope and a top-10
ranking entering the final week
of the regular season.
Then came a 29-point loss to
their most bitter rival.
Welcome home, Coach
Harbaugh. There’s still work to
be done.
Cohen can be reached at
maxac@umich.edu and on
Twitter @MaxACohen.
JAKE
LOURIM
MAX
COHEN
RUBY WALLAU/Daily
Ohio State proved its superiority with another dominant win over Michigan.
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Michigan received a strict wake-up call, ending a promising season with a 42-13 loss to Ohio State on Saturday.