VIEW FROM THE MIDWEST: NOVEMBER 19, 2007

Buckeyes Back In Title Hunt After Winning ‘The Game’

By Paul Smith / smith@collegeblitz.com

There are reasons why people of high means out east insist that Harvard-Yale is "the game".

There are reasons, a whole lot more valid than the battle of law firm chieftains/Wall Street moguls/C.E.O.s why Army-Navy, Texas-Oklahoma, U.C.L.A.-U.S.C. or Auburn-Alabama often try to grab onto that label.

But for most knowledgeable football fans across the land, there is The Game.

Ohio State-Michigan.

It is a 100-yard gridiron war that is physical, metaphysical, megaphysical and just plain nasty most years. It is years of hard-core, often bitter recruiting battles come to life.

To understand just how much it means in college football's kaleidoscopic landscape is to allow yourself to delve into a little history.

This year's 14-3 Ohio State dominance of the hated "Gang Up North" in historic, hysterical Michigan Stadium wasn't entirely unexpected, to be sure.

But with a near record 111,941 people venting their collective spleens, despite the Buckeyes' precipitous drop from No. 1 to 7 in both major polls and the Bowl Championship Series, this game become a major symbol in a 104-game series that dates back to Oct. 16, 1897.

For the first time in nearly half a century, since Woody Hayes prowled the sideline as a feisty young coach in 1960-63, the Buckeyes have won four straight over their archrivals.

Why is that important? Think back to Y2K where Ohio State coach Jim Tressel's predecessor, John Cooper, had called the Michigan rivalry "No big deal" after being hammered by the media about what would eventually be a 2-10-1 Ohio State run against U-M.

This after what many Buckeyes fans considered a "revolting" end zone Heisman Trophy pose following a touchdown punt return by Cleveland native Desmond Howard during the Wolverines' 28-0 romp Nov. 20, 1993...or an uncovered Tai Streets turning a simple middle screen pass into an 84-yard T.D. odyssey in Nov 23, 1996 that swung an almost-sure Buckeyes triumph into another dreary loss.

This seemingly-endless history lesson is brought up for one simple reason. As Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr found out repeatedly during the season, you can win over 75 percent of your games, but if you don't beat the Other Guys in The Game, you're toast.

"There'll be a day to discuss that," he told a massively curious media mass that included interlopers from New York, Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles. "This isn't the time..."

Maybe in both Cooper's and Carr's cases, slow-burning toast, but the unmistakable wind of change blows through the Columbus or Ann Arbor air if even the most storied of coaches doesn't deliver against the the hated foe.

When Ohio State signed Tressel in January of 2001, he made a short speech at halftime of -- surprise -- an Ohio State-Michigan basketball game at Schottenstein Center whose echoes you can still hear resonating, along with the crowd uproar...

"I can assure you," he said as some in the crowd wiped tears from their eyes, "that you'll be proud of our young people in the classroom, in the community, and, most especially, in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan."

It was straight out of the Knute Rockne playbook a Bartlett Familiar Quotation for the ages.

It resonated through golf courses, sports bars and anywhere sports fans and athletes gathered through the summer anywhere in Ohio.

That fall, a decided underdog Ohio State team closed out Tressel's first regular season with a 26-20 upset of Carr's superb Wolverines team, starting a stretch where the Bucks now have won six of seven of the Carr-Tressel matchups after the Michigan coach had gone 5-1 against Cooper, for an overall 6-7 record against Ohio State.

Despite the emotional swell of support Saturday for Carr, who had been vilified by many of the M after the Wolverines' unthinkable opening back-to-back home losses to Division I-AA Appalachian State and Oregon, the Buckeyes shook off a sluggish start, a 3-0 first quarter deficit where senior standout tailback Mike Hart showed the promise of making it a long day for the #5 Bucks.

"We didn't think we were going to be this bad off," Hart told a record media throng after being held to a two-year low of 44 yards in 18 carries. "We made a lot of mistakes out there. Give credit to the (Ohio State) defense. They came up with a great game and had a good scheme against us."

What the Buckeyes did was something they hadn't done in many a year. They dominated the always-big Wolverines on both sides of the ball. Big time, if you'll pardon the expression. It was easy to tote up the Michigan stats. Ninety one yards. Total.

Thanks largely to the Herculean efforts of Chris "Beanie" Wells, who both accounted for all the Ohio State scoring with a second-quarter 1-yard run to cap a short 44-yard drive with 10 minutes, 8 seconds left in the half and a startling 62-yard third-quarter T.D. bolt, the Buckeyes played a brutally-efficient game of keep-away, possessing the ball for 37 minutes, 50 seconds, a nearly 2-1 margin.

We are not making this up. Michigan senior linebacker Chris Graham tried to paint a happy face on his defense's efforts, but you could sense he knew the Wolverines' D was on the field wayyyy too long.

"Yeah, they had that one big play (Wells' 62-yard touchdown run), but (defensive coordinator Ron) English made some adjustments and we went in there and fought hard.

"This is a game you want to give your all to. They kept giving a couple of pops here and there and we did our best to adjust to it and stop the run and try to get a three-and-out."

But for most of the day, the Wolverines, who ran just 58 plays -- 34 of them passes -- were the hittee.

Ohio State's offensive and defensive lines were the playground bullies and their fire and passion doused any real Michigan attempts to come back. U-M managed one second half first down, a footnote that occured on the Wolverines' final possession in the game's closing seconds.

Never was the Buckeyes' physicality more apparent than on Wells' overwhelming 62-yard run where the Buckeyes' x's repeatedly knocked U-M's o's on their collective keesters.

Keep in mind this was the first play from scrimmage after a picturesque Ray Small T.D. punt return was called back, legitimately, because of a block from behind.

Wells took Todd Boeckman's handoff and the logistics were perfect for a sprint draw off left guard. And Steve Rehring didn't miss the chance to Will Johnson back a couple of yards.

When left tackle Alex Boone drove Greg Banks out of the play, reducing him to a late pursuer, and blocking back Dionte Johnson knocked down a pursuing John Thompson, it was left for Wells to throw an N.B.A. cross-over step on startled Michigan Safety Brandent Englemon, who was forced to take a seat on the cold, forbidding turf. The last 35 yards were a free ride to the promised land.

14-3.

Ballgame.

"It's always a momentum shifter, and certainly that was," Wells told The Columbus Dispatch's Tim May. "I'm just so glad and just so proud of our football team."

The emotion almost overcame Boone, who had a standout game in helping Wells establish the Bucks' ground attack. "I started screaming like crazy," the 6-feet, 8-inch, 325-pound junior with the powerlifter's body told May. "I think I actually cried a little bit. It felt good."

Crying? Crying?? There's no crying in football.

Don't tell that to the combatants in The Game. Don't tell it to Carr. Or to Tressel, who appeared to have a moist pair of eyes as the Buckeyes players crowded down to the stadium's south end to join the proclaimed "Best Damn Band in the Land" in another round of "Carmen Ohio."

The heavy second-half dependence on Wells, after a somewhat-futile first half too often spent passing in the capricious wind, was validated with an exclamation point.

The always-eager 6-1, 230-pound classic power back slammed away at the heart of the Michigan defense.

"At halftime, coach Bolls (offensive coordinator Jim Bollman) asked me if I was ready," Wells said to May. "I said, 'Yeah.'"

Johnson, the quintessential lead back who has been a big part of Wells' 1,463-yard, 14-touchdown 2007 odyssey, relished his chance to help bury the Wolverines (8-4, 6-2).

"On the play, I had to pick up the middle linebacker (Thompson) and I picked him up and I heard the crowd get quiet," Johnson told May. "At first, I thought maybe we had done something wrong. I forgot we were at Michigan, that they were going to get quiet.

"Then I looked up to see Beanie break the last tackle and take it all the way...to watch it, it almost feels like you're that person, especially being the fullback."

For Tressel, it was yet another validation of his ability to build a dominant gameplan against Ohio State's biggest antagonist.

"Our defense was not going to let them control the game with the run," Tressel said. "And we did a pretty good job of moving the chains a little bit."

Not to mention the not-inconsiderable Buckeyes faithful, an additional 4-5 thousand who broke through the Michigan ticket maze to swell the Scarlet and Gray numbers to some 8-9,000. Nor four straight W's against the Gang Up North.

"This game means so much to (the players)," Tressel said. "And for them to be able to accomplish that is very special for any kid who is a part of those four. It means it must be very difficult to win five, because I don't know if anyone's ever done that."

Not on the Ohio State side. But while the Buckeyes trail the overall series 57-41-6, since the Woody Hayes/modern T.V. era began in 1951, the Buckeyes are 29-26-2, one of the tiny handful of U-M opponents with a winning record against the Wolverines.

It'll something Buckeyes get to crow about at least until late November 2008 while those in Maize and Blue contemplate life under a new coach.

Bucknotes...Defensive end Vernon Gholston, a Detroit native, had a career day against a very likely N.F.L. first rounder, Jake Long, beating the mammoth U-M tackle for three sacks and numerous other tackles. Linebacker Jim Laurinaitis may have had the best assessment of Gholston's day: "He hits the weight room after we've had a three-hour practice and spends hours in the tape room." The post-season scenarios are a seemingly-forbidding series of what-ifs for the Bucks, who inexplicably were air-drilled down six spots for losing to much-improved No. 18 Illinois (9-3) a week ago in Columbus...But at No. 5 in both polls and the B.C.S. ratings, the scenario could unfold where the Buckeyes still make the national championship game. To wit: No. 4 Missouri (one loss) and unbeaten, No. 2 Kansas hook up this weekend in Kansas City. If Mizzou loses, the Tigers are toast...If Kansas loses to Oklahoma, the likely Big 12 title game opponent, then the Jayhawks could take a hit in the polls. Oklahoma, meanwhile, has 2 losses and while it could climb some, would likely still be placed behind Ohio State...Third-ranked West Virginia, hosting Big East opponent Connecticut, then closing out at Pitt, will likely move up to No. 2 for the time being...But if L.S.U. loses in the Southeastern Conference championship game, perhaps to Georgia, then the Tigers will have two losses and probably plummet down to No. 3 or 4...So if things worked out exactly right for the Bucks, they could be facing the Mountaineers in N'Awlins for the national title.