Lloyd Carr cried.
That was 16 years in the past, the day after the previous Michigan coach’s beloved mentor, Bo Schembechler, had died. That was additionally the day earlier than the 2006 Michigan-Ohio State recreation at The Shoe. The winner would advance to the BCS Championship Game.
Ohio State gained 42-39 in one of essentially the most emotionally wrought video games in rivalry historical past. And Lloyd Carr cried. It was concerning the loss on the sphere, nevertheless it was additionally concerning the human loss.
“From the moment we heard the news the game, I think, was the focus of our team,” Carr advised CBS Sports.
Bo would have needed it that method.
The 118th Michigan-Ohio State recreation is about to be performed, and it appears proper that we’re right here once more. For the primary time since that ’06 assembly and fourth time ever, the Wolverines and Buckeyes each enter undefeated. For the second straight 12 months, the winner advances to the Big Ten Championship Game and — pending an anticipated rolling of a substandard Big Ten West opponent — undeniably a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Perhaps no different rivalry wades so deep in the teaching DNA of its previous. The Iron Bowl entered a unique section when Nick Saban arrived at Alabama to ultimately battle — and principally beat — a passel of completely different Auburn coaches. Oklahoma-Texas shares time with a state truthful. Florida-Georgia is performed in an NFL stadium.
We’re not right here to rank the rivalries this Rivalry Week. That’s like having to select your favourite youngster — not truthful (and continually altering). But there’s something completely different, one thing determined and lasting about Michigan-Ohio State that does not let go.
Mostly as a result of the applications do not let go of their previous. Both are influenced to at the present time by the patriarchs who made this collection a rivalry: Schembechler and Woody Hayes. Bo coached beneath Woody at Ohio State earlier than rising as his chief teaching rival. The pair waged “The Ten Year War” from 1969-78 throughout which Schembechler elbowed in on Hayes’ Big Ten dominance.
Carr coached for 10 years beneath Schembechler. Jim Harbaugh performed for Bo. As Michigan’s quarterback, Harbaugh was so infused with the gritty coach’s demeanor Harbaugh as soon as assured an Ohio State win and a Rose Bowl berth in 1986. Then he led a crew that adopted up and did it.
“Jim Harbaugh was destined to someday come back and coach at Michigan,” Carr mentioned.
“You’re shaped by whatever happened in your past. We have scars,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day mentioned this week.
Day has just one scar, contemplating he was talking of the lone Big Ten loss of his four-year profession. That was final 12 months at Michigan.
Harbaugh has lasting marks of a unique variety. If Michigan wins, it’ll proceed to be as a result of Captain Comeback has been channeling Bo from the second he took the job. Harbaugh nonetheless has residual worry from the time he was 10 minutes late to his first crew assembly as a participant. The freshman quarterback was harangued, humiliated and punished by Schembechler for days afterward.
“There’s a deep, lasting scar there,” Harbaugh as soon as advised CBS Sports. “It’s not even a scar. It’s a broken bone with a rod stuck in it. It’s like a broken femur.”
On Saturday, No. 3 Michigan has an opportunity to show it’s the higher crew, if not the higher program. No. 2 Ohio State has monopolized the highlight and sizzle from its hated rival throughout the final couple a long time. That’s the dichotomy of this rivalry. The applications have dueled again in forth in recruiting and in the media, nevertheless it solely issues throughout that fourth Saturday in November.
“We’re right where we want to be,” Carr mentioned.
These days, it doesn’t matter what the end result, it’s largely agreed upon that Ohio State has the higher program. It is a contemporary quarterback manufacturing unit. The large receivers room is likely to be the very best in the nation regardless of the harm loss of Jaxon Smith-Njigba for an prolonged interval. Third-string operating again Dallan Haydan was capable of produce 146 yards final week at Maryland.
While Michigan meandered by means of the post-Carr years with Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, Ohio State performed in a mixed six BCS and CFP postseasons, winning two nationwide championships since 2002. Urban Meyer handed management of the present run to Day.
Still, Michigan has been traditionally dominant in the collection main it 59-51-6 all-time. You determine it out.
Michigan might wreck what appears like a magical Ohio State season. The Buckeyes have crushed each opponent by double digits and been ranked in the highest three all season. Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud is a slim Heisman Trophy favourite.
Ohio State has dominated currently. Michigan hasn’t gained back-to-back video games in the collection since 2000. Oh, the horror for one of these applications who make up half the highest 4 in the CFP Rankings.
With a win Saturday, it might be Michigan that might reverse course and stake the declare of being the very best program proper now.
The nature of these varieties of rivalries are going to vary huge time in the close to future. Maybe not diminish however change. In an expanded playoff, each Ohio State and Michigan would certainly get in. Heck, they may each get in this 12 months regardless of Saturday’s end result.
But there’s something so cutthroat about this matchup. Ohio State went out of its option to give attention to that scar this week.
“We’ve been licking our wounds for 365 days, hearing all the laughing and everything that everybody has been saying,” Stroud mentioned.
“It sucks. It sucks,” defensive finish Zach Harrison mentioned. “You’re constantly reminded of it.”
The present coaches have generally gone at one another like grade schoolers. In August 2020, phrase leaked that Day needed to “hang 100” on Harbaugh and Michigan. Not dangerous for a local of New Hampshire who joined this system from the NFL in 2017.
“Sometimes people are standing on third base, think they hit a triple, but they didn’t,” Harbaugh sniped at his counterpart.
The rancor can be bouncing off the partitions of Ace of Cups, a membership on High Street Saturday morning in Columbus, Ohio. Veteran punk dangerous “The Dead Schembechlers” can be enjoying a live performance on the membership three hours earlier than the midday begin. Among their … hits? … “Harbaugh to Hell,” “You Lost to Appalachian State” and “Bomb Ann Arbor Now.”
You do not must squint that arduous to see Schembechler’s affect even at the moment. Harbaugh’s offense contains a 5-foot-8, 210-pound operating again, Blake Corum, who rushes like a ball of chainsaws. Corum may as effectively be soccer offspring of Michigan greats of the previous from Butch Woolfolk to Tyrone Wheatley to Mike Hart.
“We’re still in that mold,” Carr mentioned.
Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel as soon as gained a nationwide championship with a conservative model Woody would have liked. In 2002, the Buckeyes gained half their 14 video games by seven factors or much less.
Meyer restored the rivalry’s roar if solely as a result of the native Ohioan had grown up steeped in the Hayes-Schembechler battles. His offense was up tempo, however his model was demanding. It was greater than a coincidence that Harbaugh was employed at Michigan two weeks earlier than Meyer gained Ohio State’s final nationwide championship.
There needed to be a response to the escalation of tensions. In essence, The Ten Year War was prolonged.
The end result of these conferences has been zero sum. The elation for the winner is absolute. The depths of despair for the loser is bottomless. Until final November, the end result had been absolute for Ohio State, which had gained eight in a row over Michigan. It was greater than that — 15 of the final 16 and 17 of the final 19.
Then the Wolverines broke by means of in the chilly and snow with a dominant 42-27 displaying final 12 months in the Big House. All it took was seven lengthy years of Harbaugh being good however not nice as Michigan’s coach. Great means beating your biggest rival as soon as in some time in The Game.
Of course, the end result couldn’t endure at Ohio State. In a corresponding transfer, the Buckeyes plucked defensive coordinator Jim Knowles from Oklahoma State days after Ohio State gave up these 42 factors, essentially the most scored by Michigan in the collection since 1943. Knowles has delivered on a crew that was criticized in 2021 for its lack of toughness. The Buckeyes have improved from 59th in complete protection to ninth this season.
The 57-year-old Knowles has been a component of vital rivalries at Cornell (vs. Penn) and Oklahoma State (Bedlam vs. Oklahoma) — even one Egg Bowl as Ole Miss linebackers’ coach. But nothing like this.
“When you’re young and in the profession, you look at it as the pinnacle of the profession,” Knowles mentioned this week, “… This is the biggest stage there is. You take all that and multiply it by a thousand.”
Carr, 77, stays grasp and commander of Michigan’s final nationwide championship in 1997. A heat feeling is returning now that his Wolverines have damaged by means of once more in opposition to the hated Buckeyes.
These days, the coach who spent 28 years as a Michigan assistant or head coach prefers to look at The Game from his lounge to keep away from the site visitors, the crowds. He can’t keep away from the historical past.
“Those two guys had built the rivalry as great as it’s always been,” Carr mentioned of Bo and Woody. “They took it to a different level. They still have their impact.”
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