The Sports Guru

Ohio State/Michigan Has Always Been And Will Always Be The Game

Are you sick of it yet? I ams ure you are. If you are not a fan of one of the scholls playing in the biggest game of the young century I am sure you are getting a bit tired of all the fuss. If you are a fan of, Rutgers, for instance, you are probablt saying to yourself, “This is no big deal, we are undefeated too!”. Yes, good ‘ole Rutgers fans who has been enjoying the majesty of college football for the last 5 minutes, now gets an opinion on the matter. Not quite. This is over a century of tradition at stake on Saturday at the ‘Shoe. Two of the greatest athletic programs in all of sports, pro or college, will get it on for the 103rd time, and at no point during those 7 dozen or so meetings have the two teams met as #1 v. #2. It happens this week.

But what of the hype machine? The media frenzy that has enveloped a city, a state, a region? Maybe a big deal in Louisville a couple weeks ago, or a big deal in New Jersey last Thursday, but just another walk in the park during this week, during Ohio State-Michigan week. Ya see, this game isn;t a big deal becuase the teams are un-defeated and ranked 1 and 2. No, this game has always been this big. Very rarely has one team or the other come into this game without a shot at a National Championship, or at worst a Rose Bowl birth. Michigan made a living off of ruining great John Cooper Buckeye teamas in the 90’s, twice keeping them from a shot at a title. As recently as 2000, Jim Tressel’s first season in Columbus, when the Buckeyes were young a mediocre, Ohio State went to that school up north and knocked the Wolverines out of contention. So the added excitement of the #1 and #2 stuff adds fuel to the national media fire but not to these coaches or these players.

That’s the beauty of this rivalry, it isn’t created by hype, or ESPN, or any of that, it’s created in the small towns of Ohio, and in the rural areas of Michigan. You grow up either Scarlet and Gray or Blue and Gold, there is no middle ground.

There has been alot of talk about the possibility of a re-match in the Title game should this game be a classic. A nail-biter. Let me say now that I am hoping as much hope as I can hope that it won’t happen. Don’t ruin what the third Saturday in November has become for me by trying to amp up for it again in 50 days. Sure, I am in total support of a playoff, but I think it only works if the only teams that get in are teams that win their conference. Add a couple of at-large or indepent teams that have to meet certain eligibilty requirements. Then and only then could a rematch be a remote possibility. For this year, in this B.S. sys…oh I mean BCS system, there can’t be a rematch. The loser wouldn’t be deserving and it would be unfair to the winner. Ohio State-Michigan is meant to be played in November, in chilly Columbus or frigid Ann Arbor, not in January in balmy Arizona.

Great coaches, great players, great fans and several great games litter this rivalry over the past century. From Woody and Bo, to Desmond Howard’s Heisman pose. Howard solidified his Heisman run in this game, as did Charles Woodson for the Wolverines a few years later. Eddie George locked on up for the Buckeyes, and this Saturday another Buckeye can get his name engraved on The Trophy. Troy Smith has had monster games against the Wolverines the past 2 seasons and another would pretty well lock up College Football’s ultimate individual prize.

Lloyd Carr is starting to feel the same heat that eventually succumbed Cooper in Columbus. Alot of success, except for the one and only game that matters, this one. Carr is 1-4 against Treesel. Coope went 2-10-1 in his 13 shots, yet averaged nearly 11 wins a season while in Columbus. He was run ou of town. Tressel has become a hero in Ohio, first winning that title in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl with all of Cooper’s Seniors, then keeping the Buckeyes at or near the top of the heap in college football. For 14 years he sat as the coach at Youngstown State waiting for his shot at this job, his dream job. All he did there, at a place most athletes would never dream of playing, was win 4 National Titles. Not too bad. Now at OSU he is hot on the trail of his second title in 6 years, right on track with his YSU pace.

So many angles, so much history. Just remember as you continue to get drowned in a sea of media coverage before 3:30 on Saturday that this game means alot this year. But it always has, for over 100 years. It’s just taken that long for everyone else to join the party.

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