For lack of a better term, The Game has become a little lackluster.

With apologies to Ohio State’s Buckeyes, Michigan, for the most part, hasn’t held up its end of the bargain in recent years.

OSU has won six of the last seven games in the series, its best streak since winning six of seven from 1957 to 1963. The Buckeyes have never won seven of eight from Michigan since the rivalry began in 1897. Ohio State’s 14-3 victory against UM in Ann Arbor last year was OSU’s fourth straight against the Wolverines. It commemorated the first time since 1963 OSU had won four in a row against UM. Since becoming Ohio State’s head coach in 2001, Jim Tressel is 6-1 against Michigan. The victory last season gave the Bucks their third straight Big Ten championship and second consecutive outright title.

There doesn’t appear to be much variation from the trend in sight, as the two teams continue, for the 105th time, what is considered the greatest rivalry in college football Nov. 22 at Ohio Stadium starting at noon.

The Game always has significant consequences. This year’s contest will be no exception … for Ohio State.

The Game will represent the 44th time in the series that Ohio State and Michigan have played to decide the Big Ten championship. This year’s contest will be no exception … for Ohio State. The Buckeyes are thinking title. The Wolverines are thinking season savior.

That Michigan will be an underdog is a distinct understatement. The tradition of the rivalry will give some oddsmakers pause, but at least 17 points should be the norm in appraising Ohio State’s superiority.

That brings to mind the last time there was such a discrepancy in the ranking of the two teams. It’s something that desperate Wolverines fans might be clinging to as a last resort, much like the leaf clings to the branch, hoping the fall wind will never blow.

Ohio State, the defending national champion and the best of coach Woody Hayes’ 28 Buckeye teams, this according to Hayes, was a 17-point favorite against Michigan and its rookie coach, Bo Schembechler, in 1969.

The Buckeyes had beaten Michigan 50-14 the previous season, with Hayes going for a two-point conversion following his team’s final touchdown. When asked why he went for two, Hayes, with his most famous quote ever, said, “Because I couldn’t go for three.”

Schembechler had “50-14” taped on every one of his player’s uniforms the week before their showdown against his former tutor in ’69.

The Wolverines prevailed 24-12 in what was, and still is, considered the biggest upset in the history of the series. It ended OSU’s 22-game winning streak and the chance for a second consecutive national championship.

At a banquet in honor of Hayes in Columbus following his firing in 1978 after he punched a Clemson player during the Gator Bowl, Hayes spoke, with Schembechler also on the dais. Bo represented all of the coaches who had served under Hayes.

After his remarks, Hayes was asked which of his 28 Buckeye teams was the best. Without hesitation Hayes said it was his ’69 team. Then there was hesitation as Hayes looked down the dais at his former assistant coach Schembechler and said, “Damn you Bo, you will never win a bigger game than that!” In later years Schembechler, who died on the eve of the 2006 Ohio State-Michigan game, admitted Hayes was correct.

The parallel that fraught Michigan fans attempt to provide is that they have another rookie coach in Rich Rodriguez, and why can’t there be another extraordinary result?

Would a Michigan victory Nov. 22 be of even greater significance than the Wolverines’ ’69 triumph against the vaunted Bucks?

The answer is yes. Why? Because, while Ohio State was the best team in the country at the time it played Michigan in 1969, the Wolverines weren’t exactly confetti made from tissue paper. In beating the Buckeyes, UM shared the Big Ten title, both 6-1. It was the Wolverines’ fifth straight win, a streak that would stop with a 10-3 loss to USC in the Rose Bowl, with Schembechler suffering a heart attack on the eve of that game.

While OSU was considered the best team in the country in ’69, this is a Michigan team destined to become the worst in school history based on its 3-7 overall record entering this weekend. No Michigan team has ever lost eight games in a single season. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes (5-1, 8-2 going into Illinois ) started the season ranked No. 3 in the nation and are still a Top 10 team. The Wolverines lost five straight before defeating Minnesota Nov. 8 to “improve” to 2-4 in the conference going into its final home game against Northwestern.

Michigan’s defense has already allowed more points per game (28.4) than any team in school history and this was to be the Wolverines’ strength. The offense’s 302.7 total yards per game are the program’s fewest since 1967 (293.7 yards), while its 22.2 points per contest represents a two-decade low (1984, 17.8 points).

The series favorite has been upset 19 times, most recently when No. 7 UM lost to an unranked OSU team in 2004. The Wolverines have not won in Columbus since Tressel became the head coach eight years ago.

The biggest upset in the history of the series? Absolutely. Not because Ohio State is so good, as was the case in ’69, but because Michigan has hardly ever been so bad. The disparity is overwhelming.

Rich, you would never win a bigger game than that!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Special Section, Sports.
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