Ohio State Football: 2016 QB recruits battle and facts about “The Game”
A look at the quarterbacks who will lead Ohio State and Michigan and a few facts about the rivalry that may be of interest to Buckeye fans.
When Ohio State and Michigan face off today each team will be led by an outstanding 2016 quarterback recruit. Dwayne Haskins will be leading the Buckeyes and Shea Patterson will be behind center for the Wolverines.
Patterson was the top ranked pro style quarterback and No. 4 overall player in the class. Haskins was the No. 7 pro style QB and a top 100 overall player as well.
The two took different paths to earn their first starts in the greatest rivalry in college football. Patterson spent two years at Ole Miss before transferring to Michigan. Haskins is his third year at Ohio State and learned the ropes, and the importance of “The Game”, from J.T. Barrett who never lost to “that team up north”.
The two quarterbacks have had outstanding seasons so let’s take a look at the numbers each has put up.
Haskins has had a terrific season throwing the football completing 69.3 percent of his passes for 3,685 yards and 36 touchdowns against 7 interceptions.
Patterson has a 65.6 percent completion rate, totaling 2,177 yards through the air for 18 touchdowns and has only thrown 4 picks. While his stats don’t match up to Haskins’, Patterson seems to be the ideal fit for Jim Harbaugh’s offense.
The battle between the two outstanding 2016 QB recruits should be a good one.
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Now for a few facts about the rivalry.
I’m sure you have heard Michigan leads the series 58-49-6. However, I wonder if most people are aware that includes a 12-0-2 record before the two teams began playing on an annual basis a century ago which was about the time Ohio State began taking football seriously.
Yes, believe it or not there actually was a time when football wasn’t all that important to the university.
Since that time the Buckeyes are 49-46-4.
The Wolverines still were winning more than they lost until Woody Hayes became head coach but things changed after that.
Woody was 26-11-1 in the rivalry, and from 1951 to the present Ohio State’s record is 37-27-3.
Since Jim Tressel took over in 2001 the Buckeyes are 14-2 (the 37-7 victory in 2010 was vacated). Coach Tressel was 8-1 and Urban Meyer is 6-0.
dark. Next. Our predictions for 'The Game'
I thought these stats might be interesting for Buckeye fans to keep in mind in case a Wolverine fan starts bragging that his team has the advantage in the series. While that is true, it hasn’t been the case since Ohio State and Michigan began playing “The Game” on a regular basis.