A Lesson From History
On the Eve of The Game

RELATED STORY » To Bo Schembechler, R.I.P.

By Paul Smith
paul.smith@collegeblitz.com

Willoughby, Ohio -- The telephone conversation between this time-worn scribbler and an alumnus/colleague, a former cheerleader, went something like this from his end...

"How can you say Michigan-Ohio State is the biggest rivalry in sports?" he demanded. "In New Jersey (his home base), I doubt many people will be watching."

"I don't have to even argue this with you," he was told, huffily. "The Sporting News about 4-5 years back declared Ohio State-Michigan was the best sports rivalry of all."

He mentioned Notre Dame's subway alumni fanatics and I countered that EVERY state had both Ohio State and Michigan alumni clubs and people gathered from hither to yon to watch The Game on television.

This Saturday, beginning at 3:30 E.S.T. (ABC-TV, WBNS-1460 and the Ohio State Football Network, WWJ-950 and the Michigan net) the 103rd renewal of college football's best metaphor will unfold in Ohio Stadium, in front of over 105,000 of the sport's most thunderous fans.

Proof positive of the away-game power of the two schools came last Saturday when Michigan had over 10,000 of an Indiana Memorial Stadium crowd of some 40,000 as the No. 2 Wolverines (11-0 overall, 7-0 in Big Ten play) went through a 34-3 dress rehearsal against the outmanned Hoosiers.

At Northwestern, the top ranked Buckeyes (11-0, 7-0)
commandeered Ryan Field to the point that nearly 60% of over 48,000 fans were pulling thunderously for the visitors. As is virtually ALWAYS the case in Evanston.

"Questions?" your correspondent said, triumphantly.

"Well..." he mumbled, pointing out a bunch of other rivalries he felt deserved equal billing. What simply kills any such argument is simple...three words.

Ohio State.

Michigan.

When you say the words college football, for the greatest number around the country, those are the first three that come to mind.

Oh, sure, there's Wabash-DePauw, Williams-Amherst, Villanova-Delaware, Lafayette-Lehigh, Carleton-St. Olaf, Wooster-Oberlin, Harvard-Yale, etc., on the lower scales, and there are Army-Navy, Notre Dame-U.S.C., Alabama-Auburn, Florida-Florida State among others on the big stage.

But there is no doubting whatsoever the impact of Ohio State-Michigan.

What other game draws media from Boston to Beverly Hills? What other game, to steal a phrase from that fabled institution in north central Indiana, wakes up the echoes of a Woody Hayes or Tom Harmon, of the play-by-play voices of Jack Park or Bob Ufer, of Benny Friedman or Vic Janowicz, of Howard "Hopalong" Cassady or Ron Kramer, of the sprinting two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin or the irritating one-time Heis Man, Desmond Howard, the "traitor" from Cleveland who did a Heisman pose in the Michigan Stadium end zone during U-M's 28-0 shellacking of the Buckeyes in 1993 to a collective arrrrrghhh from O.S.U. fans everywhere?

Immediately after Ohio State pounded Northwestern 54-10 last Saturday before a crowd that, by early in the second half, consisted of 80% Buckeyes supporters as the N.U. folks opted to drown their sorrows under the parking lot tents, Bucks players talked Michigan.

"Yep, it's that time now," said redshirt junior wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez, passing on the customary, "Hey, let's savor this one and we'll think about Michigan this week..." stuff.

"This is what college football is all about," added quarterback Troy Smith, who threw four touchdown passes. "And now, finally, Michigan week is here."

Up north, the Wolverines were pretty much saying the same things.

While the two schools and their fan bases genuinely loathe each other, the players have an undying respect not only for each other, but also the rivalry, which Michigan leads 57-39-6, although it is dead even, 27-27-2 since the "T.V. era" began in 1950).

"This is what players come to these two schools for," U-M coach Lloyd Carr told the statewide media. "This game ... basically sells a kid."

Talking with Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey, he said, "We are looking forward to the renewal of the greatest rivalry in college football."

Like his Ohio State counterpart, Jim Tressel, Carr and his players were careful to say all the right things about the Buckeyes. "Awesome defense," quarterback Chad Henne told a Detroit T.V. reporter. "They just shut you down, take your options away one-by-one."

Talking with the Trib's Reid Hanley, Tressel paid Henne the ultimate compliment. "To watch his progress is a lot like watching Troy Smith's progress," said Tressel, who is 4-1 against the dreaded "Gang Up North."

"He has been in many different circumstances and has learned valuable lessons," Tressel added. He has completed a league high 61.9% of his passes, good for 18 touchdowns and 1,932 yards, numbers only that low because of the presence of a 200-plus yard per-game running attack.

All of the stats can be dizzying. But there is no doubt the black-and-white fades quickly to Scarlet and Gray or Maize and Blue when you inject the emotional factor.

Gonzalez grew up a huge Michigan fan in Cleveland simply because his father, Eduardo Gonzalez, had played for legendary Glenn "Bo" Schembechler in Ann Arbor in the mid-1970s.

But while his dad still feels some affection for his alma mater, when Anthony opted for the Buckeyes, he changed his wardrobe and loyalties for good, according to the Trib's Teddy Greenstein.

"Your loyalty goes to your kids," the senior Gonzalez told Greenstein. "Once your son commits, you become an Ohio State fan forever."

Keep in mind, in the grand tradition of this rivalry, Schembechler was a Woody Hayes assistant for six years in Columbus before taking the Michigan job in 1969.

One of Gonzalez's memories of the O.S.U.-Michigan rivalry was that of Tim Biakabutuka shredding the proud Buckeyes defense for 313 yards in 1995 as the Wolverines pinned one of 10 losses on former Bucks coach John Cooper's record. His 2-10-1 mark against the Wolverines, despite a .715 overall percentage, was the key to his being fired after the 2000 season.

"I remember a lot about that game," Anthony Gonzalez said to Greenstein. "There was a streaker there at halftime. Remember that?..."

But one of the better examples of how the two schools clash came long before Gonzalez's critical last-minute 26-yard reception set up Antonio Pittman's game-clinching 4-yard touchdown bolt in a 25-21 victory in Ann Arbor last fall.

As it turns out, Gonzalez seemed headed from St. Ignatius High School to his dad's alma mater when things took a quirky turn at U-M's Junior Day in the spring of 2002.

Just before that, highly-respected Michigan assistant Stan Parrish, who was Carr's eyes and ears in Northeastern Ohio, resigned. He was the guy who'd recruited Howard, for one.

"All those Cleveland (recruits) are at Michigan and they don't have a recruiter," Eduardo Gonzalez recalled. "Tony said, 'Oh, no. Now what happens?'"

The next week, according to Greenstein, Anthony Gonzalez headed to Columbus for O.S.U.'s Junior Day and the conversion process lasted just 72 hours.

"There are maybe 200 people there," said Eduardo Gonzalez, "and Jim Tressel grabs Tony first and tells him, 'We have to have you at Ohio State. I'm going to have a (scholarship offer) on your dinner table Tuesday.' On Tuesday, the darn thing shows up. I said, 'Tony, these people must want you.'"

It didn't turn Anthony Gonzalez into a big time Michigan hater. But it was typical of the constant bumping and grinding the two schools encounter as they cross recruiting paths.

There are other, less cordial examples, of course.

There is the story of the cantankerous Hayes recruiting a prospect in Flint, Mich., a rare foray across the border for the Buckeyes' biggest legend.

En route home, a lake-effect blizzard kicked up on Route 23 and suddenly, Woody was barking out commands to his assistants, telling the driver to press on through the blinding snow as they neared Toledo.

The gas gauge hung perilously close to "E" and the car was stuck in the ditch and Hayes is said to have barked, "Don't just sit there, let's get out and push this g.d. thing!"

"But Woody," one assistant said, "there's a gas station right over there."

Over there was still on the wrong side of the border, dammit. Woody said, "We're not going to spend one damn penny in this state!" he said, according to legend.

One time as a guest at a Youngstown, Ohio, football banquet, Hayes encountered the son of a former O.S.U. player who had encountered a Gonzalez-like situation, only this time at Columbus and wound up playing for Michigan.

The kid, a couple years removed from Ann Arbor reintroduced himself to Hayes. "Yeah, I know who you are -- you went to Michigan!" the crusty one snorted, seeking other company in a hurry.

The fact that Tressel is encountering increasing success mining the football-rich turf of southeastern Michigan ratchets up the intensity even more.

The teams are familiar enough with each other's prospects and, believe it, with everybody from wideout to waterboy. It reflects itself with the typically intense preparation.

Make no mistake, while the Wolverines' late-season schedule read: backsliding Iowa, Northwestern, Ball State and at Indiana, Carr and friends were plenty busy plotting, ways to slow down dominant Ohio State defensive linemen like David Patterson and Quinn Pitcock and linebacker James Laurinitis. Can we find a way to wedge 5-feet, 9-inch 200 pound tailback Mike Hart through the Buckeyes' mobile defense, they wondered in unison?

Can Chad Henne, behind a powerful, well-chronicled offensive line, find time to hit game-breakers Mario Manningham or Steve Breaston for that one critical third-down play that spins the game in the Wolverines' favor?

You can be sure Carr and his exceptional staff have spent countless hours desperately trying to find the keys to a winning combination as they pored over every Buckeye defender's game tape.

And you can be equally sure Tressel has done exactly the same, knowing how Michigan has broken the wills of several upset-minded opponents with dominant second-half performances.

But there is an extra urgency in Ann Arbor, not so much just because O.S.U. is number one, but because Carr is rapidly approaching the unenviable position Cooper faced in the late 1990s.

Jim Carty, The Ann Arbor News' eloquent columnist, may have said it best...

"The average score in their meetings is Ohio State 24.6, Michigan 21.2, about a field goal's difference..." he wrote.

"...Which only proves how little math has to do with reality and what an all-or-nothing business college football is.

"Tressel owns Carr.

"Don't try to make some stat geek statement against domination. Don't even think of painfully parsing the requirements for owning someone in a rivalry. Ohio State fans would laugh at you, while Michigan fans squirm in embarrassment.

"The question is why?"

During the 1988-2000 run of Cooper pretty much exactly reversed the process.

It is part and parcel of the unending mystery and charm of a rivalry that may best be answered by the famous Ezio Pinza response to Mary Martin in "South Pacific" during the song "Some Enchanted Evening..."

"Fools give you reasons; wise men never try."

Tressel did some of the best broken-field running since his college days at Baldwin-Wallace when asked about the quirks of the rivalry swinging Ohio State's way recently.

"Troy Smith spins and runs 46 yards (which he did in a key T.D. drive last year against U-M), now come on, I don't have any answers," he insisted to Carty last Monday.

"The Ohio State-Michigan game has gone on, and sometimes you come up on the good end, sometimes you don't. But if anyone pretends to think they have the answer, they have a problem."

It's an explanation your faithful correspondent's good buddy might have trouble with.

But then, that's Ohio State-Michigan and for sure, it is why it is the best rivalry in all of sports.

Paul Smith covers the Big Ten, Notre Dame and the rest of the national college football scene with his View From the Midwest.

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