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The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | November 28, 2016

Business trip

The Michigan women’s 

basketball team spent 

Thanksgiving in the U.S. 
Virgin Islands and came 
away with two victories

» Page 3B

The new ‘Game’

Jim Harbaugh proved 
Saturday — and for the past 
year — how much the Ohio 
State rivalry means
» SportsMonday Column, 

Page 2B

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OLUMBUS — The play 
was called 29 lead.

Curtis Samuel took a 

handoff going left. His blockers 
created 
a 

tunnel. 
He 

burst through 
it, 
jumped 

over 
the 

goal line and 
stretched his 
hands as wide 
as he could 
to the fans in 
the north end 
zone.

It may go down in history 

as one of the enduring plays in 
one of college football’s great 
rivalries — not because it was 
exceptionally drawn up (though 
it was), but because it ended an 
iconic game that may outlive 
those who saw it live.

The nation’s No. 2 team beat 

the No. 3 team, and then fans 
stormed the field. That doesn’t 
happen in games where the 
home team is favored. But this 
was Ohio State and Michigan, 

with the highest stakes in a 
decade. No celebration was 
unworthy.

That’s the significance of 

what happened at Ohio Stadium 
on Saturday: Ohio State 30, 
Michigan 27.

There will be time to rehash 

what was or wasn’t. Michigan 
coach Jim Harbaugh offered 
plenty of thoughts in the moments 
following the game, when he said 
he was “bitterly disappointed” 
with the officiating. He thought 
one hold went uncalled, one 
pass-interference 
was 
called 

unjustly and one spot — on fourth 
down in double overtime, no less 
— should have given his team a 
victory. None of it matters. None 
of it’s changing.

It took two overtimes for the 

Buckeyes to beat Michigan, but 
they did it. They twisted the 
most jagged of knives through 
the hearts of those who dared 
to hope. They did it in the last 
game of the regular season, and 
they did it in a year where the 
Wolverines looked like one of 

the nation’s four 
best teams.

Ohio 
State 

coach Urban 
Meyer called 
it an instant 
classic, and 
he’s 
right. 

Harbaugh 
said 
the 

implications 
of the rivalry 
weren’t on his 
mind. Both are 
probably 
true. 

That’s 
because 

instant 
classics 

don’t happen without 
heartbreak, 
“bitter 

disappointment” 
or 

whatever you’d like to 
call it. The ingredients 
of despair and ecstasy are 
exactly the same.

In his postgame press 

conference, 
Harbaugh 

stuck up his hands and 
showed how far from the 
first down he thought J.T. 
Barrett was on a double-

overtime 
4th-and-1. With 
Ohio 
State 

down 
three, 

Barrett rushed 
forward, 
took 

low 
contact 

from 
Delano 

Hill, 
and 

stretched 
toward 
the 

first-down 
marker.

Afterward, 

Harbaugh asked 

reporters what they 
saw on the TVs 
upstairs. 
“Short,” 

they 
agreed. 
The 

referees 
did 
not. 

They 
saw 
Barrett 

collide into Hill and 
fall just over the line 
of gain. The replay 
officials did not see 
enough to overturn 
it. That’s how these 
things go. Harbaugh 
has a legitimate gripe, 
but legitimate gripes are 

worth exactly zero wins.

Instead, 
they 
are 
worth 

years, even decades, of anguish. 
Harbaugh 
may 
be 
able 
to 

eventually rid himself of that 
burden with other games, other 
calls that do go his way and 
maybe even a championship. 
But he will never be able to undo 
what happened on the north side 
of Ohio Stadium on Saturday.

His team might have avoided 

it by gaining more than just 
five yards in the fourth quarter, 
or not committing one of its 
three turnovers, one of which 
occurred at the Buckeyes’ 1-yard 
line. But it’s too late for all that. 
Nothing will ever change the 
outcome. The game will be 
preserved, exactly the way it 
unfolded, for eternity.

After Harbaugh expressed 

his displeasures, Meyer held 
court in the southeast corner 
of the stadium. It couldn’t have 
been 
more 
different. 
There 

was Meyer, the victor, entirely 
flummoxed. He was asked all 
kinds of questions, including 

what he thought his chances 
were when his team was down 
17-7 in the third quarter.

“I don’t know,” he responded. 

“We won the game.”

As the questions continued, 

Meyer found refuge in a clever 
response. 
Asked 
about 
an 

unsuccessful fake punt call, 
he said: “On the last play, we 
ran a stretch to the left. It’s 
29 lead, is the call, and Curtis 
scored.” Asked about his health, 
he started, “Curtis…” before 
laughter finished the sentence 
for him. On if he remembered 
anything from after the game: 
“Yeah, Curtis scored.”

It was that simple for Meyer. 

Harbaugh didn’t even mention 
the play.

That’s the difference between 

being on the winning and losing 
ends of a game like Saturday’s. 
Harbaugh is left looking back on 
what went wrong, remembering 
the calls that could have been 
different. Meyer doesn’t have 
to remember anything. History 
will do it for him.

Ohio State 30, Michigan 27

eternal anguish

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Instant classic,

DESIGN: Michelle Phillips, Anjali Alangaden

MAX
BULTMAN

