End of Days: Michigan 30, Ohio State 24

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It’s probably never going to be like this again. Not exactly, at least. Michigan-Ohio State will give way a bit to new team arrivals from the West Coast, a division-less 1 vs 2 Big Ten Championship game, and a 12-team CFP. So while The Game will still be The Game, the future team on the losing end will have a lot more options. Lower stakes for sure.

But on Saturday, on the biggest stage with everything on the line, including public perception of 3 years of team legacy, Michigan took the best shot from a very talented squad from Columbus and sent them home empty handed. Michigan defeated Ohio State for the third consecutive year, 30-24, in a decidingly TEAM manner. No superstars, no standout player of the game, just a win. Onward.

Way Back When-sday is Going Streaking!

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November 22, 1997: Been holding on to this one for a while. This is Captain Michigan, Today is his birthday. 26 years ago today he agreed to run naked down the main drag in Manchester if Michigan beat Ohio State. He is nothing if not a man of his word. This picture was taken just after Michigan defeated Ohio State for the third straight year, locking in an undefeated regular season and a trip to the Rose Bowl en route to a National Championship. More from that day and beyond on the game page.

We Went in There and Took it From Them - THE Ohio State Photos

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New crew, who dis’?

Still buzzing. Big thanks to Christian and his boys for letting us crash their party. And a big hello to a couple of new traveling buddies (Don and Rob) that hit their stride so quickly it felt like they had been there all year long. I haven’t had much to say this season, probably out of some combination of laziness and writing self-consciousness, but hyperbole aside Saturday November 26 of 2022 will forever have its place on the mantle with Saturday November 22 of 1969 (and 1997),

Columbus is an experience I don’t recommend for most, a city built on fan violence, incest, tooth decay, and the smell of blood and urine. And as someone that felt the brunt of the blowback from Michigan’s unexpected beatdowns of the Buckeyes in the 90’s, I was expecting an ornery bunch when we arrived on Saturday. Instead, they took on the form of a fan that I have only seen at Notre Dame. Cocksure. They looked down their noses at us, as if to say “We are the elite. You are trash. Your lucky victory of last year will remain as meaningless as the one you had under Hoke. Please prepare for this inevitable beat down.” I’ve never seen a group more confident. And they remained that way well into the game. They were, dare I say, happy? No shit talking, no tossing dog feces, no 80-year old grandmother flipping me double birds (all things I have indeed experienced in the past). Even when it hit 24-20, they pointed to all three Michigan TDs coming on “busted coverage”, and remained confident that they controlled the game. But when Michigan rolled a 3rd quarter drive into the 4th, and put up another 7 after a 15-play, 81-yard drive that sucked up 7:51 and made it 31-20, the puckering got serious, and a hush fell over the crowd. I’ve never seen it quiet in there. I’ve seen that fanbase rush the field more than I’ve seen my own, but never ever has it been quiet. Chants of “Go Blue” were audible in The Shoe. And after Donovan Edwards busted his first of two 75+ yard TD runs, those “Go Blue” chants began to echo off of empty seats of fans exciting in disbelief.

It was absolutely glorious.

The concourse rang out in random shouts of “It’s Great To Be A Michigan Wolverine” as we made our way down the 10-story spire of the great cement toilet, but when we hit the street, it was silent. A college house we passed on Neal St. played a slow sad country song. I was not addressed by a single Buckeye. So shocked, the poor bastards couldn’t even muster up a “Fuck You” for posterity. I also remained quiet, out of respect for their dead.

Savor it folks. See you in Indy.


Photos From the Greatest Day of All Time: Ohio Beat 2021

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We Manifested It: Michigan 42, Ohio State 27

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It’s hard to put Saturday into words without using a stupid cliche like “It’s hard to put into words”. I can honestly say I’ve spent most of my life putting in as much effort as a fan possibly could. If you know me and you have joined us for a tailgate you know. For 3+ months every year, my focus is Michigan Football, planning for Michigan Football tailgates, organizing away game travel, and talking shit to people around me about the greatness of Michigan Football. And despite all signs to the contrary, I’ve always, and I mean ALWAYS, believed. Like, unhealthy belief. If you ever heard me say Michigan wasn’t going to win, I assure you it was out of superstition, me trying to quell my unachievable expectations through mantra, or some grandiose idea that I can control outcomes of games with reverse psychology.

Saturday I attended my 271st straight Michigan Game: Home, Away and Bowl. 21 and a half seasons. A silly habit born of being a student at Michigan in 1997, that became an obsession and now somehow feels like a calling. We’ve all got hobbies I guess. Mine is chasing that feeling. It’s rare as hell and I think it can only be felt in person. 1995 OSU, 1997 PSU & OSU, 2003 OSU, 2004 MSU, 2006 Notre Dame, 2011 OSU, and maybe some Denard stuff under the lights. And that’s it.

Chasing 1997 has long since morphed into chasing 2003, and that journey has been long and oftentimes disappointing. Sitting through the tail end of Lloyd’s tenure with App State, RichRod and the first taste of under .500 and being home for bowl season, and Brady and his lack of a headset. But really the monotony of it all, just riding out season after season with an ending that for my teens and 20’s was nearly impossible to fathom: losing to Ohio State. You can’t do anything, ANYTHING, if you lose to Ohio State. There are no championships available for the loser of The Game. And Michigan had lost 15 of the last 16 going in to Saturday.

Seems like only yesterday that Michigan found a way to hire one of my childhood heroes and owner of most of my earliest sports memories to lead this team in the way I wanted it led. But that was 7 long years ago. And over the last few years he started to show signs of wear, and that system, the one I believed in, the one for the good guys, seemed like it might not be enough to overcome what the bad guys were doing. Then Covid hit, some key pieces bailed on a season with little meaning, and Michigan really tanked it, going a full year without a home victory, which was particularly devastating for my cardboard cutout.

Fuller / MGoBlog

2021 was never supposed to be about beating Ohio or getting Harbaugh off the hot seat, it was about scrapping and clawing for signs of life. Can we just start over? Orlando was the ceiling. The literal floor was the floor. A tough-when-scheduled non-conference game and an absolutely daunting road slate awaited. And little of that mattered, because we were a 2-4 team and there was always an Ohio State game to lose. Somehow the stars aligned though, and the hearts and minds of a group of kids (and I’m including the most of the coaching staff when I say “kids”) came together to be much more than the sum of their parts. Quietly Michigan returned to spending a bit of each day on Ohio. And maybe if you can beat Ohio with it, you can beat anybody with it. That combined with something that had been missing, call it “resolve” I guess, helped pull out games in Lincoln and Happy Valley, in no small part due to some real “dudes.” These dudes spent most the year on the cusp of Michigan lore, destined to be forgotten when another Thanksgiving weekend brought us all back to reality. But instead, on Saturday they became heroes forever etched into the walls of Schembechler.: Hutchinson, Haskins, Ojabo, McNamara.

I went into the game Saturday thinking that we had a chance because this young coaching staff would know they couldn’t just impose their will and they had to scheme to beat out superior talent. I couldn’t have been more incorrect. Michigan lined up and did the opposite of what I would have wanted…they told Ohio State what they were going to do, and then they did it. And Ohio State could not stop it. Not even close. Both sides of the ball. The line of scrimmage. The backfield. The outside. The inside. Special teams. Saturday was not a fluke. Saturday changed the trajectory. The crew in Section 30 that have rode this out with me for nearly 30 years hugged and cried and stormed the field, feeling that rare feeling as Michigan’s 42-27 victory over Ohio State opened up a whole new world of opportunity, not for some time in the future but right here, right now. Somehow, this is just the beginning.

Michigan heads to Indianapolis to face Iowa for an outright Big Ten Championship. A win Catches 2003 and gets them in to the CFP where they will be 2 wins away from Catching 1997.