2B — November 26, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
What makes a successful season
C
OLUMBUS — Shea Pat-
terson walked into the
room, every camera
focused on
him, and sat
down.
The junior
quarter-
back sighed.
Loudly. Then
he sighed
again.
Michigan’s
starting
quarterback
didn’t have
much to say about what hap-
pened at Ohio Stadium on Sat-
urday afternoon. Neither did
his coach, nor his other team-
mates who spoke briefly with
reporters after the Wolverines’
62-39 dismantling at the hands
of Ohio State.
I don’t blame them. Truth
be told, there isn’t much to say
about this rivalry anymore,
other than what has been said
for the past few years.
Michigan has not beaten the
Buckeyes in seven years, not
since Ohio State hired Urban
Meyer. The Wolverines have
won once in the past 15 years,
which means that if you are
a freshman in high school
like my sister, you have seen
exactly one (1) win. And it was
against a terrible Ohio State
team led by an interim coach.
There are children reaching
the formative years of their
childhood, the years when you
start to retain lasting memo-
ries, who have never seen
Michigan beat the Buckeyes.
Their formative memories
of this rivalry will be of a
botched two-point conversion
in 2013. A disputed spot after a
fourth-down play in 2016.
And what happened Satur-
day, when Ohio State quarter-
back Dwayne Haskins played
pitch-and-catch with his team-
mates and Buckeye freshman
receiver Chris Olave etched his
name into history by catching
two touchdowns and blocking
a punt that was returned for a
score.
Ohio State
gets Herculean
efforts from
players like
Haskins and
Olave seemingly
every year. And
almost every
time, the Wol-
verines are left
with the same
feeling — what
Patterson put
into words as “a pretty sour
taste.”
Understandably, Patterson
was muted and mostly kept his
answers short.
But I want to discuss one of
his longer responses.
Patterson was asked wheth-
er he would characterize this
season as a success.
“I do,” he said. “We have
high expecta-
tions and high
hopes here at
Michigan, and
that’s displayed
every day in
work at prac-
tice. So any time
we don’t reach
our ultimate
goal, that’s obvi-
ously a little bit
of a letdown to
most of us.
“But a 10-win season, you
know, we played a lot of good
teams, played in the Big Ten.
And, I don’t know, I think this
is a successful season. Still
have a bowl game to go com-
pete for.”
That’s different from what
Harbaugh said 32 years ago
when he guaranteed a Michi-
gan win over
Ohio State.
“The last 10
games we played
mean nothing to
us right now. It’s
down to a one-
game season,”
Harbaugh said
in 1986. “Ohio
State is our sea-
son. If we win
this game, then
it’s a successful season.”
As I drove back from Colum-
bus last night, I thought about
how to square those two state-
ments. They seem to conflict
with each other.
I think now that I would
agree with Patterson’s asser-
tion.
For the program in its cur-
rent state, this was a success-
ful season.
Harbaugh and
the Wolverines
deserve credit
for turning
around the ship
in one short
year after fin-
ishing 8-5 last
season. Har-
baugh parted
ways with one
of his longest-
tenured assistants. He brought
a few fresh voices onto his
staff. Michigan is recruiting
much better than it was last
year, which was very much
needed. It’s playing much bet-
ter, too.
The Wolverines went from
fourth in the Big Ten East to
winning a share of the divi-
sion title by beating Wiscon-
sin, Michigan State and Penn
State. The “Revenge Tour”
injected life into the program.
Now Michigan will have a
chance to win 11 games, which
it has done just twice this cen-
tury.
In all of those aspects, the
season was a success, like Pat-
terson said.
Because things have
changed since Harbaugh made
his famous guarantee. This
isn’t the same Michigan. The
Wolverines don’t trade Big
Ten titles with Ohio State
anymore. They hardly go to
the Rose Bowl, which is why
a trip this year — even though
it isn’t a playoff game — would
still mean something to this
program.
Losing to Ohio State with
a Big Ten championship and
playoff bid on the line is a bit-
ter pill to swallow.
That is the dark cloud that
will be cast over this season.
Saturday’s loss showed just
far apart these two programs
are, when many (including me)
thought Harbaugh and Michi-
gan would close the gap this
year.
But it wasn’t too long ago
that this program finished 5-7
and made its second coaching
change in four years. Har-
baugh has revived Michigan.
Since then, Harbaugh has led
the Wolverines to three dou-
ble-digit seasons in four years,
the first to do it since Fielding
Yost. That’s why it would be
hard to deem this season as a
failure.
The bars have shifted lower.
And that’s where they’ll
remain until the Wolverines
win the only game that used to
matter.
Sang can be reached at
otsang@umich.edu or on
Twitter at @orion_sang.
EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines left Columbus, Ohio on Saturday with a 62-39 loss to Ohio State and a 10-2 record headed into the postseason.
The more things change
C
OLUMBUS — It
felt shockingly
improbable, yet so
oddly familiar.
Like everything that
happened
— from the
opening
touchdown
drive to
the blocked
punt to the
four ensuing
touchdowns,
and all
the gory
details in
the middle
— was so wholly predictable.
Like everyone with two eyes
and a cursory knowledge of
recent college football history
should have known better.
Especially those who’d lived
it, breathed it and suffered
the consequences.
Four hours later, after a
staining 62-39 defeat, it sure
seems like everyone was
duped anyway.
“It didn’t go good, didn’t
end up good,” said Michigan
coach Jim Harbaugh “We
take responsibility for it.”
This team was different;
at least, the lead up to
Saturday’s game was billed
as such. Michigan had the
top-ranked defense in the
country, weapons galore
on offense and finally a
quarterback. It had paraded
a “Revenge Tour” for the
wrongs done in 2017 — and
was 3/4th the way through
those opponents. Tepid as
it may have been, junior
running back Karan Higdon
guaranteed a win. There was
swagger.
Ohio State was different,
too. Finally, oh finally,
vulnerable. It had lost by
29 points to Purdue just
weeks prior. It had a porous
defense, ripe for exploiting.
Conventional wisdom ahead
of the matchup was that
the home field was the only
advantage the Buckeyes held.
Michigan went into The
Game between a three- and
five-point favorite.
“We all had mindsets to go
to the Big Ten Championship.
We all had mindsets of
beating Ohio State,” said
senior safety Tyree Kinnel.
“And I felt like we start
having that mindset after
the Wisconsin game. After
we beat them, beat Michigan
State, beat Penn State, we
were high on confidence.
“Maybe we were a little bit
too ahead of ourselves.”
In the process, the
Wolverines lost their season.
There will be no trip to
Indianapolis next weekend,
nor a destination in the
College Football Playoff.
Just 10 hollow wins, one
giant mental block and
interminable questions.
The Buckeyes hung 62
points on that aforementioned
top-ranked defense Saturday
— topping the prior Michigan
record of 56 points allowed to
Cornell in 1889.
“I mean, I guess you could
say shocked a little bit,”
Kinnel said. “My mindset, our
mindset as a defense coming
into this game was to play
like we’ve been playing all
year. We feel like we had high
confidence, we felt like we
had a good shot at dominating
this game.
“We made adjustments at
halftime, we addressed the
issues we had in the first
half, and they came out and
beat us with something else
in the second half,” he added.
“…They completely beat us
today.”
The Wolverines offense
didn’t fare much better,
tallying just 235 yards of
offense and 18 points before
three late-game drives made
the scoreline appear closer
than the game really was.
In the end, this was Ohio
State and this was Michigan,
both holding true to form of
the previous two decades. In
the end, nothing was truly
different.
It almost seems beyond
the scope of the present to
point fingers in a team-wide
drubbing of this magnitude.
Which is why it’s easy and
fair to turn point them
straight at the coaching
staff. Harbaugh, for his part,
accepted blame.
Even that seems to bely
what’s institutionally
baked into the program.
This is 14 of 15 years now.
It’s 19 years without a win
in Columbus; players are
coming into the program
who haven’t been alive
that long. There’s a mental
stranglehold that extends
beyond talent or execution
or individual gameplans.
This is a purgatory Michigan
cannot escape until it finally
clears the last hurdle. After
Saturday, that mental hurdle
seems as high as ever.
Ohio State quarterback
Dwayne Haskins summed it
up best.
“I mean, we didn’t need
the underdog score point.
We didn’t need the revenge
tour. We didn’t need the
guaranteed win. We know
what this game means to our
school, to our teammates and
to our coaches.”
As the Michigan offense
waved the proverbial white
flag, milking the clock down
by 23 in the fourth quarter,
the mind wandered to
broader implications. There
will be a cushy bowl game in
Pasadena or New Orleans or
some destination getaway.
Players and coaches will talk
about turning the page. There
will be hand-wringing over
what consistutes a successful
season. It will all mean
nothing. It’s almost as though
today was never about just
one game.
This is a program that
came into Ohio Stadium
seemingly on the precipice of
a breakthrough. It leaves four
hours later as far from that
as ever.
“We’ll come back motivated
to make darn sure it doesn’t
happen again,” Harbaugh said
of his mindset.
And he will, for the next
12 months, convince himself
that next year is the one. So
will some fans. Then next
November will come and the
Wolverines will be shoved
back into reality by the
“rival” that still controls it
all.
In the end, maybe it’s
just that simple. Same old
Michigan.
Marcovitch can be reached
at maxmarco@umich.edu or on
Twitter @ Max_Marcovitch.
The Michigan Daily Top 10 Poll
Each week, Daily sports staffers fill out
ballots, with first-place votes receiving 10
points, second-place votes receiving nine
and so on.
1. Alabama: A real shame this entire
season has been for nothing, and we will
watch Nick Saban hoist another trophy.
2. Clemson: A real shame this entire
season has been for nothing, and we will
watch Dabo Swinney watch Nick Saban
hoist another trophy.
3. Notre Dame: Is there such thing as a
Passive Irish?
4. Georgia: Folks, Kirby sucks!*
*This is a joke about the video game
character
5. Oklahoma: The Michigan Daily would
score more points on this defense than it
does on The State News every year!
6. Ohio State: No comment.
7. UCF: Imagine how good this team would
be with a coach like, I don’t know, Scott
Frost.
8. Michigan: Our alternate SportsMonday
headline was “Nut Punch.” We liked that
better but will settle for using it here.
9. Texas: Ok. Cool
Hook Em!
10. Washington: Jimmy Lake hates you.
ORION
SANG
MAX
MARCOVITCH
EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is now 0-4 against the Buckeyes at Michigan.
“And, I don’t
know, I think this
is still a successful
season.”
“Still have a
bowl game to go
and compete
for.”