2B — November 21, 2016 SportsMonday The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Somewhere, Brady Hoke is smiling I ndiana called a timeout, and then De’Veon Smith picked up the first down, and then the chant started in earnest. In the previous few minutes, there had been murmurs of it, as if those remaining from an announced crowd of 110,288 had been waiting to start it. Then, with just under four minutes to play, with the No. 3 Michigan football team in possession and the game finally in hand, it came out in full force: BEAT O-HI-O. As the Wolverines ran out the clock on a 20-10 victory against Indiana on Saturday at Michigan Stadium, the chant rumbled throughout the building. It continued after the clock ran out and the Michigan Marching Band played “The Victors.” It echoed through the concourse as the fans filed out of the bowl. It may well echo around the state all week. The chant was “BEAT O-HI-O.” It was not “BEAT THE BUCK-EYES,” the more common call before Jan. 12, 2011. That day, Michigan introduced its new head football coach, a man named Brady Hoke. Hoke put the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry on a pedestal. He refused to wear red. He wanted to win this game more than any of the others. He called the Buckeyes “Ohio” as a slight, which is how the chant started. As Jim Harbaugh leads the Wolverines near the pinnacle of the college football world, those in the fan base try to erase memories from the painful years that came before. That will be hard to do this week. Though most of Hoke’s staff is gone, most of Michigan’s players are his recruits — and “The Game” is the biggest game in college football this week, just like Hoke always wanted. Much has changed around Ann Arbor since Hoke resigned and Harbaugh arrived. Harbaugh religiously avoids placing more significance on one game than another. If his team does so, he reasons, then it didn’t give its best effort in all of the games — an unpardonable sin in Harbaugh’s book. The next game, he repeats, is the most important one. Brady Hoke made no such stipulation. “(Ohio State) is the most important game on that schedule, and not that the others aren’t important, but it is the most. Important. Game. On. That. Schedule,” Hoke said at his introductory press conference, pounding the podium for emphasis. “… It’s very important to me, and very … it’s almost personal.” Hoke’s four years as head coach will always be a sore spot because of his record, especially compared to his successor. But Hoke was, by all accounts, a good man whose players loved him. He just didn’t win nearly enough football games. He did, however, get his team ready for Ohio State. In four editions of the most important game on Hoke’s schedule, Michigan played some of its best football in all of them, winning one and making the other three far closer than they should have been. Hoke also put his fingerprints all over this year’s team, and for that Harbaugh owes him a great deal. He recruited Michigan’s entire starting defense, from fifth- year seniors Chris Wormley and Ryan Glasgow on the line to senior cornerbacks Jourdan Lewis and Channing Stribling at the back end to, yes, even redshirt sophomore Jabrill Peppers. He brought in starting quarterback Wilton Speight, even after other schools shied away from Speight following an injury in high school. He signed all three of Michigan’s top receivers and laid the foundation for an offensive line that now starts three fifth-year seniors. And as much as the program is different now than it was two years ago, parts of Hoke’s culture remain. Fifth-year senior Ryan Glasgow, whom Hoke brought in as a walk-on before he blossomed into one of the defense’s most important players, said after Saturday’s game there was “no doubt” that this weekend’s showdown is the biggest of his career. “Ohio State, Michigan, greatest rivalry in sports — how can it not be in the back of your mind from right after the day you play it until the next year?” Glasgow said. “I don’t really hesitate to say that it’s probably the biggest game that you play in every year — all dependent on what rankings are and what position you’re in, but it’s always in the back of your mind.” In the final minutes Saturday, Glasgow couldn’t help but hear the “BEAT O-HI-O” chants coming from the stands. How could he not? The passion and sentiment Hoke instilled didn’t leave when he did. “Great guy, great mentor,” Glasgow said. “I still check in with him every now and then. Personally, I owe a lot to that guy. Believed in me from the beginning. As an unrecruited walk-on, sometimes that doesn’t happen.” Harbaugh, meanwhile, preaches the importance of treating every game like a championship game, and it doesn’t hurt that this really is one. If Michigan wins Saturday, it will win the Big Ten East division and advance to the Big Ten Championship on Dec. 3. That only adds to the usual storylines. Each team has plenty of players from the other state, including both starting running backs (Michigan’s De’Veon Smith is from Warren, Ohio, while Ohio State’s Mike Weber hails from Detroit). Each team is ranked in the top three heading into the matchup for the second time ever. “I don’t need to say too much about the game — it’s just the game,” Peppers said. “Now that it’s finally here, we can zero in on it and put all our focus towards it, ’cause this one’s for all the marbles. Everything we want is right in front of us. We just gotta go out there and execute.” No longer do Michigan and Ohio State have to downplay this weekend’s showdown to avoid getting ahead of themselves. Regardless of which coach is at the helm, the game Saturday is the biggest of the season. Hoke and most of the rest of the country treat it that way because it’s “The Game.” Jim Harbaugh and his team do because it’s the next game. This week, it just so happens to be both. Lourim can be reached at jlourim@umich.edu and on Twitter @jakelourim. SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN JAKE LOURIM JAMES COLLER/Daily Former Michigan coach Brady Hoke never got his team to the level he wanted, but his fingerprints are all over this year’s team as it heads into “The Game.” scrimmage his freshman year,” Glasgow said. “I think me and Chris had him on a running back draw, and we were sure to take him down, and he kept his legs moving, and we got back to the line of scrimmage and we were like, ‘This kid is a horse.’ This kid just doesn’t stop, he’s relentless, so that’s always awesome to have in a running back.” After snow angels were made and all of the fun in Michigan’s first snow of the year had been had, redshirt sophomore linebacker Jabrill Peppers pulled Smith’s chair out for him in post- game media availability. Peppers took it a step further and uncapped Smith’s Gatorade for him, too. It’s safe to say that Smith had earned it. chances to put away an inferior team on their home field. They know they could have lost their fourth straight Senior Day game. They’ve done it all before. They played better, but did not manage to survive, in last year’s heartbreaker against Michigan State. They did the same in their home finale in 2013 against a much better Ohio State team. In between, they suffered losses of every form. The Minnesota game in 2014 brought the Shane Morris concussion incident, to say nothing of the fact that the Golden Gophers came into the Big House, dominated the Wolverines and stole the Little Brown Jug off their sideline. Utah stomped Michigan until a downpour halted play, then stayed in the stadium and finished it off with only Utes fans in the building. Maryland spoiled the Wolverines’ Senior Day, all but extinguishing their bowl hopes with a trip to Ohio State coming the following week. This year’s seniors remember all of that. Perhaps that was part of the emotion of this year’s Senior Day. Defensive tackle Ryan Glasgow finished the live portion of warmups to see his parents standing on the sideline, holding a frame with his jersey in it. Thomas, Hill and cornerback Jourdan Lewis shared a moment before they ran out of the tunnel for the final time. “Before the game, we were all like, ‘I can’t believe we’re touching the banner one last time,’ ” Thomas said. “We all came in together, we all grinded together and now we’re all leaving together, except for a few guys who transferred. “When they started playing that video, when they started playing that sad music, Khalid comes to me, he’s like, ‘I might start crying.’ I’m like, ‘If you cry, I’m gonna cry.’ And (Lewis) is like, ‘No, what’s wrong with y’all? Y’all got a game! Let’s go win!’ And then (Lewis) is like, ‘You know, I might cry too, y’all.’ I was like, ‘We’re gonna be all right. Let’s just go win, and let’s make the best of this last year we got together.’ ” Almost four hours later, with their final home win safely in tow, they celebrated. Morris, Jake Butt, Henry Poggi, Patrick Kugler and Ben Gedeon — all seniors who have gone through various forms of adversity in their own individual careers — took a picture together. Offensive lineman Kyle Kalis, in his own inimitable style, waved his arms frantically to pump up the crowd. Glasgow, for the first time in his career, ran to the student section and jumped on the wall — before he realized he was jumping in the wrong section. It was one of Michigan’s least impressive victories of the season, yet it may have been the one most worth celebrating. The Wolverines are 10-1 and are heading down to Columbus next week for a showdown against Ohio State because they did what it took to win Saturday. They managed just 59 passing yards, their lowest total of the season. They had the same number of first downs as Indiana, 15. They outgained the Hoosiers by just 29. Only a pair of De’Veon Smith touchdown runs late in the third quarter secured the win. But they did secure the win. These seniors don’t take that for granted — and neither does their head coach. In 1986, quarterbacking a then-undefeated Michigan team, Jim Harbaugh lost the last game he ever played at Michigan Stadium, 20-17 against Minnesota. “It’s not a good feeling,” Harbaugh said Saturday of losing his home finale. “At all. I’m glad our guys played eight home games and won ’em all. “The constant, being a Michigan football player through the ages, is that you play in the Michigan Stadium. You play in that venue, that Big House. Always has been that way, is and always will be. That’s the one constant — all the time, the facilities, the changes, society and everything else — is that you play in that stadium.” It hasn’t always gone smoothly here, and it didn’t Saturday, perhaps a fitting end to the seniors’ careers. Michigan trailed at halftime for the first time all season, and with starting quarterback Wilton Speight injured on the sideline, uneasiness spread among the announced crowd of 110,288. About a third of the student section emptied out at halftime. Those who remained at the end had the opportunity to savor the feeling. By then, the snow had blown around the stadium and coated the turf. The cheerleaders made snow angels in the end zones, and the students threw snowballs on the field. “Let It Snow” played over the speakers. With an eighth straight home win this year, the Wolverines added another lasting memory to erase all of the sour ones. Afterward, Harbaugh, who has won 78 games as a college head coach and reached the Super Bowl, called it “one of the best wins I’ve ever been involved with.” Because, as the Wolverines found out Saturday, that’s how it feels to survive. SMITH From Page 1B SENIORS From Page 1B O’Korn’s run salvages shaky day Football games rarely actually depend on one play, but Saturday night, one run certainly seemed to swing the outcome. With the Michigan football team trailing Indiana, 10-6, late in the third quarter, redshirt junior quarterback John O’Korn was struggling. All game long, O’Korn had been under pressure, and most of the time, it didn’t end well. He was sacked twice, hurried twice and tackled for loss on another play. His feet have been considered an asset off the Wolverines’ bench, so when starting quarterback Wilton Speight went down with an injury last week, it was widely expected he would showcase them early and often. It just hadn’t been working out that way. As the game wore on, O’Korn said, passing game coordinator Jedd Fisch told him over the phone, “You need to make a play.” He did. Moving to his left, O’Korn took off scrambling, turned the corner and started up field. It didn’t appear to be a designed run like other times Saturday, but he found a hole regardless. Fifth-year senior receiver Jehu Chesson sealed a great block outside, and O’Korn shot through the lane. As he crossed midfield, it looked like he had all kinds of space to keep going. “I thought I was going to score,” he said. “Got tackled from behind.” Though he was stopped at the 34-yard line, it was enough to kick-start the Michigan offense. Senior running back De’Veon Smith trucked a Hoosier defender and scored on the next play. Smith then added a 39-yard score on the next drive, and that was all the offense the Wolverines would need. Prior to O’Korn’s run, the Wolverines were sputtering. They had just 166 total yards of offense, and even with another strong showing from their defense, six points wouldn’t have been enough. They were the beneficiaries of great field position for most of the game, but with O’Korn starting his first game in two years, the offense lacked direction, creativity and, until his long run, production. “When John took off for that run, that’s what really sparked us,” Smith said. “That really is what got the offensive line going. It’s not like I had the whole game in control. The defense was definitely in control — they were making stops and putting us back on the field. We were just making plays as an offense.” O’Korn said he knew Sunday afternoon that he would start for Speight, and even though no team likes to lose its starting quarterback with two weeks left in the regular season, there was reason for confidence around Schembechler Hall. O’Korn had started for a season and a half at Houston, and all spring and summer he was said to be in a heated competition for the starting quarterback job. But that optimism seemed misplaced early. Partly due to heavy pressure from the Hoosiers and partly due to an apparent tendency to leave the pocket, O’Korn mustered just 59 total passing yards. He was 7-for-18 on the day, with no touchdowns or interceptions, but thanks to a bruising game from Smith, that was enough. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said O’Korn “did a lot of good things” against Indiana, but he also said that Speight could potentially return for next week’s tilt against Ohio State. If the Wolverines win that one, they will earn a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game and have an inside track to the College Football Playoff. To beat the second-ranked Buckeyes, though, Michigan will need some kind of improvement under center. Ohio State is an entirely different beast than Indiana, and the Buckeyes are talented enough to bring even more pressure than O’Korn saw Saturday. So even as Harbaugh and his players expressed their pleasure with O’Korn’s performance, a nugget of truth came from the man himself. “Luckily,” he said, “our run game and our O-line had my back today.” MAX BULTMAN Managing Sports Editor AMANDA ALLEN/Daily John O’Korn looked inconsistent in his first start at Michigan on Saturday.