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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