MONDAY
With second
consecutive win over
Ohio State, light
shines on Michigan
as Big Ten standard
C
OLUMBUS — One stat defines a Michigan football
player’s career in Ann Arbor. The overall number
of wins you accumulate doesn’t matter. The
personal statistics and accolades ultimately don’t matter,
either. Those are nice shiny resume points to add to a list,
but one stat is held above anything else:
Your record against Ohio State.
Prior to last season, hundreds of players had cycled
through the program with a zero in that column. The
Game, for the entire 21st century, has been a stepping stone
for Ohio State toward its postseason aspirations, each time
sinking the Wolverines a little further into the ground.
Winning last year proved that beating Ohio State was
possible. It was a moment of jubilation, a chance for
euphoric fans to pour out onto the field, an opportunity
for Michigan to prove that it could still compete with
the Buckeyes — that it wasn’t residing on a completely
different playing field.
But it also was just that. A ‘one’ in the win column
instead of a ‘zero.’
“Everyone keeps track of their personal records,” senior
receiver Cornelius Johnson said. “We had old Michigan
players come in and talk to us during training camp and
all that people ask is, ‘What’s your record against (Ohio)
State?’… That’s what matters most.”
On Saturday, after marching into Columbus and
achieving an even bigger margin of victory than they
conjured last year, many Wolverine players now have
something that no one in the program could claim since
2000.
A winning record against Ohio State.
A second win changes everything for Michigan’s
program. No longer can pundits point to otherworldly
circumstances being necessary for the Wolverines to beat
the Buckeyes. Even at 11-0, even after winning last year,
few seemed to give Michigan a chance to win Saturday.
The Wolverines were 7.5-point underdogs and some were
already looking at scenarios for them to back their way
into the playoffs with a loss.
But Michigan didn’t need any chaos scenarios. The
Wolverines went out for sixty minutes and proved they
were the better football team. Again.
And now the perception has shifted.
“Winning two in a row, it just gives us as a program that
confidence,” graduate linebacker Mike Barrett said. “Just
as a whole Michigan family, it just kind of gives everybody
that confidence of being able to go and do it again.”
The Wolverines can be talked about as a team that
can beat anyone in the country, the same treatment
that has existed for Ohio State for much of the past
decade. Michigan can start thinking about its National
Championship chances. When the Wolverines dominate
an opponent, they deserve the respect that great teams
get, not the scrutiny they often faced for the quality of the
team they played.
Going into future seasons, these talking points should
be part of the regular conversation surrounding Michigan.
And as for the Big Ten? It’s no longer a league boasting
Ohio State and everybody else. That narrative died as
Buckeye fans headed for the exits far before the game’s
conclusion.
“We’re not so much of a team that looks to the past and
worries about it,” sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy
said. “We’re always about the present and worried about
changing the future.”
For months, the Wolverines have been on a “happy
mission,” as Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh calls it. They
play with joy, with a belief that they can win in any scenario
they’re thrown into. That energy was lacking two years
ago, as the Wolverines went 2-4 in the abysmal Covid-
shortened season and sank to their most downtrodden
point in years.
The 2020 offseason was an inflection point — a moment
when the Wolverines realized they needed to change when
Harbaugh decided he needed to instill some new habits in
his floundering program.
That started by building a habit of winning. Close
games. Pesky road environments. It didn’t matter. They
were a program that was out of excuses. And since then,
they’re 24-2.
“It’s been a very happy mission,” McCarthy said. “No
matter what the road is, no matter what the route is, if
you’re winning every single week, I couldn’t be happier.”
Michigan needed this mindset for every game to be able
to compete against Ohio State, to re-introduce itself on a
national stage. As the Wolverines kneeled out the clock in
Columbus, the speckles of maize and blue fans dominating
the quickly emptying bleachers of Ohio Stadium, it became
clear that mindset had been enshrined.
Beating Ohio State again marks the dawn of a new era in
Michigan football. Taking down the Buckeyes is no longer
impossible; it’s no longer a talking point; it’s no longer a
once-in-a-lifetime win.
It’s just Michigan’s latest habit.
DAYBREAK
JOSH TAUBMAN
Daily Sports Editor
SPORTSWEDNESDAY
The Wolverines went out for
sixty minutes and proved they
were the better football team.
Again. And now the perception
has shifted.
TESS CROWLEY/Daily, GRACE BEAL/Daily
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November 30, 2022 | Page 16