What last season’s loss to Michigan means for Ohio State

JACOB BENGE | THE LANTERN SPORTS EDITOR

Every year, a clock in the Woody 
Hayes Athletic Center counts down 
toward kickoff between Ohio State 
and Michigan.

Since 2012, “The Game” clock had 

ticked toward when Ohio State would 
eventually defeat Michigan, prevail-
ing in eight-straight matchups. 

Last season, it didn’t end in victory. 
“When you live this year-round, it 

hurts,” head coach Ryan Day said.

When No. 5 Michigan upset No. 2 

Ohio State 42-27 on Nov. 27, 2021, it 
ended the Buckeyes’ streaks of four-
straight Big Ten Championships and 
back-to-back College Football Playoff 
appearances.

Despite an 11-2 record and Rose 

Bowl victory, last season wasn’t 
deemed a success by Day and Ohio 
State’s standards.

“Maybe at some places, 11-2 with a 

Rose Bowl victory is a good year — 
it isn’t at Ohio State,” Day said. “Our 
three goals are: beat the team up 
north, win the Big Ten Champion-
ship, win the national championship. 
That’s the goal. Those three didn’t 
happen last year.”

The Buckeyes heard others ques-

tion their youth and inexperience, 
as they replaced 13 starters from its 
2020 team that advanced to the CFP 
National Championship.

Ohio State hired former Oklahoma 

State defensive coordinator Jim 

Knowles to the same position, mak-
ing a change toward its defense that 
allowed nearly 373 yards and 23 
points per game in 2021.

Knowles notably has changed the 

Buckeye defense to consistently fea-
ture four defensive linemen, two 
linebackers and five defensive backs. 
He’s also added a wrinkle he brought 
with him from previous coaching 
stops in the “Jack” position, which is 
a hybrid linebacker that can line up 
front in run defense and drop back 
into coverage.

Day said he hoped Ohio State’s 

coaching change could see them 
playing top-10 defense, and Knowles 
upped the ante by saying in the pre-
season that he expects a “top-five de-
fense.” Knowles said the Buckeyes are 
progressively adding to their defense 
with new concepts and plays, saying 
they’re “ahead of schedule” as the 
month of November is underway.

“Everything is about habits that be-

come a lifestyle, so we want to stop 
every team on every possession of 
every game,” Knowles said. “The way 
we play has got to be an every day, 
every game thing where you expect 
to stop, when you compete to stop 
them, on that series because when 
the time comes that you need it that’s 
all you’ll know.”

The Buckeyes heard criticism over 

the offseason. They heard about how 
they lacked toughness in the loss to 
Michigan, and they heard about it 
from their rivals.

Former Michigan offensive coordi-

nator Josh Gattis said on the “Inside 
Michigan Football” radio show Nov. 
29, 2021, the Wolverines knew they 
could “out-tough” Ohio State, and it 
led to victory.

“They’re a good team. They’re a 

finesse team — they’re not a tough 
team,” Gattis said. “And so we knew 
that going into the game that we can 
out-physical them, we can out-tough 
them, and that was going to be the 
key to the game.”

But the Buckeyes aren’t listening 

to what others are saying about them 
this season.

Third-year quarterback C.J. Stroud 

said the Buckeyes “don’t really listen” 
to external expectations, and Day 
said “We’ve always said it’s about us.” 
Winning the next game week in and 
week out is Ohio State’s top priority, 
and Day said the Buckeyes must avoid 
looking past their next opponent.

“Our goals are still our goals,” Day 

said. “If we don’t maximize every sin-
gle minute of the day this week, then 
it doesn’t matter.”

Second-year wide receiver Mar-

vin Harrison Jr. said Ohio State’s 
“competitive stamina” motto has 
shown itself this season, such as the 
fourth-quarter comeback at then-
No. 13 Penn State and in unfavorable 
weather at Northwestern.

Harrison said the Buckeyes must 

do what’s necessary to “put ourselves

 in the best position” because Ohio 
State “can’t lose any upcoming 
games.”

“We can’t look too forward to the 

game at the end of the month, so 
each day we try to take it day by day, 
get better,” Harrison said. “Lot to 
work on even though we have suc-
cess and the wins, things like that. 
There’s still always issues.”

Day said toughness isn’t some-

thing that appears overnight but 
has been something of which Ohio 
State has taken note.

“I think you can see that our guys 

have played physical. That’s some-
thing that we’ve taken a lot of pride 
in this year,” Day said. “I think if 
you’ve seen some of the teams we 
played and talked to the teams we 
played, you’ve recognized how 
hard, how tough we’ve played.”

Last season, Ohio State and Mich-

igan met for the first time in a new 
chapter of the rivalry after the 
COVID-19 pandemic forced cancel-
lation of “The Game” in 2020.

This season? All the chips are in.
“I think where all the chips fall, 

they’re going to fall, and hopefully 
we’re hoisting the big trophy at the 
end,” third-year offensive lineman 
Luke Wypler said. “The tough team 
is going to win any given Saturday, 
so for us, it’s just that’s the measure. 
It’s how tough can you be week in 
and week out?”

Michigan has the chance to reassert its place in the rivalry. It just needs to win

SPENCER RAINES | MICHIGAN DAILY SPORTS EDITOR

There’s something that the Wol-
verines won’t tell you. There’s a 
yearning that’s tucked away in the in-
ner recesses of the program.

Deep down, Michigan wants to be 

like Ohio State.

Of course, the Wolverines will nev-

er say it, but it’s been like this for 
years now. They’ve seen their arch-ri-
val contend on a national stage sea-
son after season, hapless as the Buck-
eyes roll over them time after time 
on their way to countless accolades. 
Michigan wants the success that its 
rival enjoys, and for the better part of 
two decades, that lust has been seem-
ingly unsatisfiable.

Then 2021 happened.
After breaking through the barrier 

against its greatest rival in emphatic 
fashion, Michigan has an opportuni-
ty to reestablish itself as a true com-
petitor in the rivalry — proving that 
last year was not an anomaly, but the 
start of a new era.

Immediately 
after 
that 
game, 

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh em-
phatically proclaimed that it was the 
latter.

“It feels like the beginning, every-

thing about the team,” Harbaugh said 
back on Nov. 27, 2021, following his 
first win over Ohio State. “Every day, 
every week, every month. This has 
always felt like the beginning.”

That’s only the case, though, if the 

Wolverines keep it up. 

Last year was the perfect storm, 

both literally and figuratively. Snow-
flakes whistled through the air, set-
ting the stage for Michigan’s biggest 
win of the millennium.

Then-senior running back Has-

san Haskins had five touchdowns 
and 
then-senior 
defensive 
end 

Aidan Hutchinson had three sacks. 
And while weather and individual 
brilliance weren’t the sole reasons 
the Wolverines won, they certainly 
helped.

Which poses the question: How do 

they reach that apex again?

After last year’s game, then-junior 

quarterback Cade McNamara, having 
led Michigan to victory, made a dec-
laration:

“Long term, we’ve set the expecta-

tion now,” he said. “It’s been so long 
since we beat Ohio State, but we did 
that today. For the guys coming back, 
now we’ve got to do that every single 
year. We know what it took.”

McNamara won’t be the quarter-

back when The Game comes around 
this year, but that doesn’t mean his 
point is moot. The foundations of 
a precedent have been set and the 
Wolverines can make good on what 
McNamara declared. But in order to 
do that, they’ll have to break years of 
anguish. 

An anguish that is, at this point, 

generational.

As someone who grew up in Ypsi-

lanti, MI, just 15 minutes down I-94 
east of Ann 
Arbor, I have witnessed firsthand-
Michigan’s annual end of season loss 
on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

I, along with many of the players 

on the Michigan football team, was 
not alive the last time that the Wol-
verines beat Ohio State in Columbus 
in 2000. That year also marked the 
last time that 

Michigan beat the Buckeyes twice in 
a row — 1999 and 2000.

This season, the Wolverines have 

the chance to break both of those 
droughts. If they do, they will cement 
themselves as one of the favorites to 
win the national title. They can bring 
the rivalry’s on-field product — and 
the stakes surrounding the matchup 
— up to the standard that so many 
have wanted for years. 

Last November, as Michigan fans 

rushed the field and then onto the 
snowy streets of Ann Arbor, it was 
clear that, despite what many said, 
the rivalry never left. The inevitabili-
ty and almost mythological stature of 
Ohio State just clouded that fact, but 
The Game is still here, and it’s still 
elevated above every other game on 
the schedule.

But it’s also still the barbed-wire 

fence that separates the Wolverines 
from the rest of college football’s 
elite.

There’s a blueprint for taking that 

barrier down, but it’s precariously 
perched upon a ledge that’s just bare-
ly in reach. If they revert back to the 
precedent set by recent history, all of 
that progress will evaporate in just 60 
minutes.

It’s for that reason that this year’s 

contest means so much more for 
Michigan than almost any other 
game.

There’s a gateway for the Wolver-

ines to reach college football’s prom-
ised land, a path to all of their goals 
that they have so unabashedly worn 
on their sleeve:

“Our goals would be to beat Ohio 

State and Michigan State in the same 

year, win the Big Ten Championship, 
and win the National Championship,” 
Harbaugh told reporters at Big Ten 
Media Days on July 26. “Those are 
our four goals.”

They already beat the Spartans. 

The only true obstacle that’s left in 
the way of a second consecutive col-
lege football playoff is Ohio State.

Who would have it any other way?
This year just feels different than 

others, at least that I can recall. It 
doesn’t feel like a David versus Goli-
ath story, as it was last year or count-
less ones before. Michigan’s chances 
at victory are once again tangible.
If I was a betting man, I’d still prob-
ably pick the Buckeyes to win — it’s 
hard to predict that something is go-
ing to happen when you’ve quite lit-
erally never been alive to see it. But 
Michigan does have a shot at fully 
reasserting itself back into the rivalry 
on the field, and that was barely be-
lievable in itself until recently.

With a win, the Wolverines can fi-

nally satiate their decades-long hun-
ger. They’ll finally be like the Buck-
eyes.
They just need to do something that 
recent history tells us is nearly im-
possible.

MACKENZIE SHANKLIN/Lantern File Photo

KATE HUA/Daily