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
Design by Lys Goldman & Sophie Grand

November 30, 2022 | Page 16

