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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.