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2 | The Lantern | Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022
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Past and present Ohio State coaches’ 
MENTALITIES AND approaches to ‘The Game’

Rivalry games are circled on the calen-

dars of college football programs every 
year.

For Ohio State-Michigan – which mul-

tiple former Buckeyes coaches and play-
ers called the greatest rivalry in sports – 
is circled, highlighted, written in bright 
shiny marker and given all the attention 
year-round.

Different coaches have taken different 

approaches to “The Game,” but no mat-
ter the strategy, victory was always on 
the minds when playing the Wolverines.

Here’s how each of the past seven Ohio 

State coaches felt and approached coach-
ing for the Michigan game.

Woody Hayes (1951-78), record against 

Michigan: 16-11-1

Before Woody Hayes arrived at Ohio 

State in 1951, the Buckeyes totaled just 12 
wins against Michigan in 47 tries. After 
Hayes’ departure in 1978, the program 
had more than doubled its win total 
against the Wolverines.

Former linebacker Arnie Jones said 

a reporter asked Hayes at Ohio State’s 
weekly media availability what he was 
going to do to energize the players for 
the Buckeyes’ matchup against Michi-
gan.

“Woody turns around, looks at him and 

goes, ‘Son, if you have to fire anybody up 
for the Michigan game, they shouldn’t be 
playing,’” Jones said. 

Former quarterback Burdette Schnei-

der said Hayes treated “The Game” like 
it “was any other week.” He said he didn’t 
have animosity toward the Wolverines, 
but “knuckled down” for the rivalry 
matchup at the end of the year.

Jones, a team captain in 1974, said 

Hayes always told the team he didn’t 
want “Wednesday All-Americans” — a 
player who didn’t play as well on Satur-
day as he did in the last tough practice of 
the week on Wednesday.

Jones remembers rivalry week prac-

tices under Hayes being not as physical-
ly intense compared to other weeks but 
more mentally demanding.

“If we’re playing Northwestern — I 

think our average score against them the 
three years I played was 60-0 — but we 
could have tough practices that week be-
cause it was just basically so obvious that 
we were going to win,” Jones said. “Mich-
igan was kind of the other way around. 
You want to save as much physical ener-
gy as possible, but go over the stuff men-
tally, so that you are as sharp as possible.”

Hayes was one of the pioneers in fo-

cusing on Michigan year-round, but 
Jones said it came with the offensive 
schemes of the time. He said most teams 
ran “I-formation, I-right, I-left with a slot 
back,” so despite the opponent that week, 
it was like the Buckeyes were preparing 
for Michigan.

The Buckeyes coach of 28 seasons had 

a stretch in which the rivalry was argu-
ably at its best: “The Ten Year War.” 

Hayes and former Michigan head 

coach Bo Schembechler, who Jones said 
were like “father and son,” squared off in 
a string of games from 1969-78 in which 
all but one game had both teams ranked 
in the AP Top 25 and some sort of cham-
pionship or postseason implications.

Hayes went 4-5-1 in “The Ten Year 

War” with the 10-10 tie going to a com-
mittee vote that sent Ohio State to the 
Rose Bowl over Michigan.

CASEY SMITH

LTV Sports Producer

Earle Bruce (1979-87), record against 

Michigan: 5-4

Earle Bruce was tabbed as Hayes’ 

successor in 1979, but took a similar ap-
proach to “The Game” as his predecessor.

Bruce worked under Hayes from 1966-

71 as an offensive line coach, then later a 
defensive backs coach.

Former Buckeyes offensive lineman 

Jim Lachey said Bruce had “a lot of the 
Woody stuff” in his approach to the ri-
valry.

“There’s always a lot of pressure 

that game, but I think it all came from 
Woody,” Lachey, who color commentates 
Ohio State football games on 97.1 The 
Fan, said. “Just the way he kind of had 
that tradition, the way him and Bo went 
and fought during the ’70s.”

When Lachey arrived to the program 

in 1981, he said the importance of the ri-
valry was emphasized “on day one.”

He said Bruce would have each game 

written on the calendar with a “capital 
letter for the first one,” but Michigan was 
written in “all bold letters.”

The Cumberland, Maryland, native 

knew the importance of the rivalry and 
made it a point of focus throughout the 
year, Lachey said.

“There probably wasn’t a day gone by 

that we didn’t talk about that rivalry, and 
what we had to do and how we had to be 
ready to win that,” Lachey said.

Lachey said Bruce knew that “if coach-

es lost three in a row to Michigan, you’re 
getting fired,” and in his tenure he never 
did. 

In 1979, Bruce stepped in, and in his 

debut against Michigan, led the Buck-
eyes into Ann Arbor and emerged victo-
rious, 18-15.

After a fast 3-1 start against Michigan, 

Bruce lost three of the next four games 
before a best-of-nine finale in his Ohio 
State coaching career.

Bruce led the Buckeyes to a 23-20 vic-

tory at Michigan Stadium, following in 
Hayes’ footsteps and ending his career 
against the Wolverines above .500.

The Buckeyes coach had a proposition 

for his players every year.

“He always talked about, ‘Hey, you can 

lose some games, but if you beat Mich-
igan, you can walk down High Street 
when the game is over,’” Lachey said. “‘If 
you lose, you got to go down Pearl Alley.’”

John Cooper (1988-2000), record 

against Michigan: 2-10-1

The John Cooper era against Michigan 

was one most Buckeye fans would like to 
forget, as the Powell, Tennessee, native 
landed just two wins in 13 tries — but only 
three losses by more than 10 points.

ABC and ESPN analyst and former 

Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit 
said Cooper and his staff tried different 
tactics in their approach to Michigan 
week.

“It became like a helmet game for us 

even when we had a better team,” Herb-
streit said. “Sometimes we tried to real-
ly make it a special week and make it its 
own season, and that didn’t work. Other 
times they would downplay it like, ‘Oh, 
it’s just another game.’”

Herbstreit said Cooper even tried to 

take a philosophical approach.

 “He read a Francis Schmidt, ‘They put 

their pants on just like us,’ about the gold 
pants,” Herbstreit said.

Despite Cooper’s struggles against the 

Wolverines, he understood the impor-
tance and history of the rivalry, as well as 
the implications on postseason play.

“If you coach at Ohio State, it’s got to 

be the biggest rivalry in sports. There’s 
no question about it from our stand-
point,” Cooper said. “Now, most other 
people around the country, there’s a lot 
of big rivalries. USC-UCLA’s a big rivalry 
— those teams are 15 miles apart — Ari-
zona-Arizona State’s a big rivalry, Okla-
homa-Oklahoma State’s a big rivalry, 
Auburn-Alabama’s a big rivalry. There’s a 
lot of big rivalries, but none bigger than 
Ohio State-Michigan.”

Cooper said Michigan was a weekly 

focus, but he didn’t want to “overlook 
an opponent just because you’re playing 
Michigan at the end of the year.”

“We put a lot of emphasis on the Mich-

igan game. A lot of people didn’t believe 
we did,” Cooper said. “Now we didn’t 
have a clock saying how many hours it’s 
going to be before you play, because the 
next game you’re playing is the most im-
portant game.”

The 13-year head coach said there was 

never a bad Michigan team he lost to, 
and in order to defeat the Wolverines, 
“You got to play your butt off and don’t 
beat yourself.”

After every game — win or lose — Coo-

per said he would invite the assistant 
coaches and their wives over to his house 
that night to bask in the victory or rehash 
why the Buckeyes came up short.

Cooper recalled the night following his 

first victory over the Wolverines in 1994.

“We celebrated. Let’s put it that way, 

we celebrated,” Cooper said with a slight 
chuckle.

Jim Tressel (2001-10), record against 

Michigan: 8-1

Following Cooper’s tenure of strug-

gles against Michigan, Ohio State turned 
to Jim Tressel who, at the time, had 
just completed a 15-season tenure at 
Youngstown State.

The Mentor, Ohio, native’s first speech 

came Jan. 18, 2001, at St. John Arena, and 
he wanted to make a statement.

Tressel gave a speech assuring Buck-

eye Nation they would be “proud of our 
young people” in “310 days in Ann Arbor, 
Michigan, on the football field.”

“I grew up in Ohio, so I know the im-

portance of that game, and I wanted to 
make sure that everyone around here 
knew that I knew the importance of that 
game and that we were going to do well,” 
Tressel said. “And we did.”

Prior to the 2001 matchup, Ohio State 

was on a two-game losing streak to Mich-
igan and had lost five of the last six to the 
Wolverines. But Tressel led the Buckeyes 
to Michigan Stadium and delivered on 
his promise, scoring a 26-20 victory — a 
win that would flip the script on the state 
of the rivalry.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 3

LANTERN FILE PHOTO

Former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel waves to the fans during a game against Michigan Nov. 24, 2012, at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State 
won 26-21.

