Ohio State and Michigan Still Resonates

Ohio State versus Michigan is still one of the best rivalries in all of sports.

The Buckeyes were expected to handle their business at home last Saturday, setting up the most anticipated showdown in “The Game” since the epic 2006 clash. The Buckeyes would be entering the game still undefeated, winners of 24 straight and in line for the chance to defend their national title in the second ever College Football Playoff. Michigan would need to beat the Buckeyes to reach Indianapolis for their first ever Big Ten Championship Game appearance. Add in the season-long build up of the first meeting between Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh and this one was going to be huge.

Michigan State delivered a gut punch to all of that hype on Saturday when they came into The Horseshoe and stunned the Buckeyes. In doing so, the Spartans have put themselves into a position where they need only beat Penn State this weekend to clinch the Big Ten East.

For the Buckeyes and Wolverines, the winner of the game will immediately become passionate Penn State fans as that game kicks off shortly after The Game is set to end. But for anyone who thinks this game lost most of its luster with the Ohio State loss, don’t be mistaken. This game is never short on implications.

Ohio State has enjoyed unprecedented success against their rival over the last 14 years. A shift in the tide was set in motion the day Jim Tressel, at a basketball game shortly after his hiring, assured all of Buckeye Nation that they would be proud of their team in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He would follow through on that, pulling the upset behind a monster day from running back Jonathan Wells.

Since that game the Buckeyes have beaten Michigan 12 out of the 14 meetings. Urban Meyer has picked up right where his predecessor left off, winning the first three that he has coached in. But any Buckeye fan, whether they lived through it or have heard the horror stories, knows that things haven’t always been so sweet.

Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

In a 16-year span, from 1985 through 2000, Ohio State managed to win this game just three times. The names that came through the program in that stretch include some you may have heard of: Chris Spielman, Cris Carter, Keith Byars, Eddie George, Orlando Pace, Terry Glenn, Joey Galloway, Antoine Winfield. Just to name a few. All of them were able to beat Michigan just once, some not even a single time.

But if you ask any of them about their college careers, they will surely bring up their lone win in The Game as one of their crowning achievements. Just a single win in a regular season game.

John Cooper was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008.Ask any Buckeye fan about John Cooper and “Hall of Fame coach” will not be the first response you get. What you will get is “2-10-1”. 2-10-1, Cooper’s record in The Game, is embedded in the history of the program and synonymous with this rivalry. His failures in The Game, and his attempts to treat it as just another game, were undoubtedly at the head of his dismissal following the 2000 season.

It is impossible to forget for any Buckeye fan who had to endure it, and it is a required detail when teaching the young Buckeye fans. A future Hall of Fame coach, forever known for what he couldn’t do rather than what he did. Fair or unfair, such is life in this rivalry.

More from Scarlet and Game

• Ohio State Football: How Denzel Burke has bounced back so far this season
• Ohio State basketball: Buckeyes conference schedule is set
• Ohio State Football rolling into form at the perfect time
• How Ohio State football has done historically versus new Big 12
• Ohio State Football: We need to see “Killer Ryan Day” at South Bend

When the Buckeye buses leave for Ann Arbor on Friday, they will be carrying a team full of players who have never known what it felt like to lose this game. Since the turn of the century, another pair of Gold Pants might have started feeling like a right instead of a privilege.

Once upon a time that suggestion would have been blasphemous. For all of the players who can afford to give one pair to their parents, keep a couple a for themselves, there are countless former Buckeyes who cherish their lone pair. Or worse have to endure this time every year where they are reminded that they can only wonder what it feels like to have a pair.

This rivalry has seen a total role reversal from that of the late 80’s through the 90’s. Michigan will come into The Game desperate to be able to feel the euphoria of winning this game. Just one time. For the Buckeyes, they don’t know any different. The emotions of losing this game are unfathomable.

Next: Four Big Ten teams in Playoff top ten

For everything that was taken away from them last Saturday, so much still remains. If this program thinks all is lost and the sky is falling, let them lose this next one as well. Everything is magnified in this game. Wins and losses transcend everything that came before it. After all, it isn’t just a game…it’s THE Game.