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Michigan-Kansas State, 11/23/12 (NIT Season Tip-Off) from HoldTheRope on Vimeo.


You heard 'em. Beat Ohio.

Who Are You and Why Do We Care?: THE Ohio State Buckeyes

(O-O-H-I)

Is there a rivalry here?

Its only the greatest rivalry in sports. When these two colleges face off it is called "The Game," and it has been the regular season finale all but three times since 1935. Michigan and OSU have met 108 times. Michigan leads to series 58-44-6. The Big Ten Championship has been decided by The Game 22 times. 

The numbers do not say the whole story in this rivalry. Michigan and Ohio are natural rivals akin to cats and dogs. Starting in 1934, any time Ohio State beats Michigan every OSU player receives a gold pants pendant. In 1950, Ohio State had the option to cancel the game against Michigan due to weather, but they refused. Even though Michigan didn't complete a pass or a first down, they blocked two punts (one for a touchdown and one for a safety), and Michigan won the Snow Bowl 9-3. The "Snow Bowl" lead to Woody Hayes being hired as Ohio State's head coach. In 1968, Ohio State was winning 50-14 late in the fourth quarter, and they decided to go for a two-point conversion. Woody Hayes supposedly said that he went for two points "Because [he] couldn't go for three."Bump Elliott resigned after the game, and Bo Schembechler was hired. Riding a 22 game winning streak, Ohio State came into Ann Arbor to play against Bo's first Michigan team. The Wolverines won 24-12. During this decade, Woody Hayes coined phrases such as "That team up north" so he would not have to say Michigan. Once Hayes retired, the rivalry became less about the coaches feud, and more about play on the field. Both teams have had long win streaks back and forth including OSU's seven game* win streak, which was ended by Michigan last year. 

When did we see them last?

Last season, Luke Fickell's Ohio State Buckeyes entered the Big House with a 6-5 record. After Rich Rodriguez was fired and Jim Tressel was forced to resign, the 2011 match up became the third time in history that two first year coaches lead their teams onto the field for "The Game." Ohio State received the ball to start the game, and took advantage. Braxton Miller completed a 54 yard pass over Blake Countess to Corey Brown for a touchdown. After two three and outs, Michigan got the ball in Ohio State territory. Two plays later, Denard Robinson ran for a 41 yard touchdown. On Ohio State's next possession, the Buckeyes were doomed by penalties. Holding on Zach Boren, false start on Jack Mewhort, and holding in the end zone by Mike Adams gave Michigan a safety and a 9-7 lead. After the free kick, Michigan had good field position, and again took advantage of it. Denard threw a perfect pass to Junior Hemingway for the touchdown. 

In the second quarter, Ohio State kicked a field goal. Three plays later Ryan Shazier forced a Denard Robinson fumble. The Buckeyes converted the turnover into a 19 yard Braxton Miller rushing touchdown. The Wolverines responded with a nine play 80 yard drive capped off with a Denard 6 yard touchdown run. Again, Michigan's secondary was unable to contain Ohio State's wide receivers, as DeVier Posey got great separation from Troy Woolfolk, and scored on a 43 yard reception. 

Michigan received the ball after halftime, and marched down the field. On third and eleven, Denard had all the time in the world, and found Martavious Odoms for a 20 yard touchdown. Later in the third quarter, Will Hagerup fumbled the snap on a punt, which lead to the funniest* .gif of the season: 

*Only because we won...

After the fumble, Ohio State hit a field goal to put the Buckeyes within 3. On the next possession, Michigan scored on a pass from Denard to Kevin Koger. Ohio State got the ball on their own 20 yard line, but Braxton Miller went into super quarterback mode, and completed three straight passes to get the Buckeyes to the Michigan 4, where Boom Herron waltzed in for the touchdown. Michigan, trying to protect their three point lead, drove the length of the field. Fitzgerald Toussaint ran what seemed to be a touchdown, which would have essentially put the game away. Look for yourself: 

The referees decided there was no evidence to call this a touchdown, and rather than score from the one yard line, Michigan responded with a Patrick Omameh holding call and a personal foul, which pushed the Wolverines back to the 26 yard line for 3rd and goal. Brendan Gibbons ended up kicking a field goal to give the Wolverines an uncomfortable 6 point lead with 2 minutes left in the game. After moving fifteen yard forward, the Buckeyes faced fourth and six from their own 35 yard line. Braxton Miller dropped back to pass, and was picked off by Courtney Avery. A Denard Robinson kneel later, and Michigan defeated Ohio State. 

What do they look like?

When I typed "Ohio State Uniforms" into Google, I saw this: 

Of the twenty pictures on that page, only four show Ohio State's "classic" uniforms. Ohio State's colors are Scarlet and Grey.  Their home uniform is scarlet with grey pants and their away uniform is white with grey pants. Their helmet is grey with a red stripe. A very boring helmet early in the year, but slightly more exciting at the end. That is unless Nike decided to mess with their uniforms that week. In recent seasons, when Michigan has faced OSU, they have worn some variations with Nike's Pro Combat Uniforms. Two years ago, they wore this at home, and the year before they wore this in the Big House. Luckily, last year, Nike decided to have Ohio State wear their newatrocities against Wisconsin. Ohio State just came out with new uniforms that they will wear for the Michigan game this season. They look similar enough to their normal jerseys that I can't complain too much. 

Have they won any Big Ten or National Championships?

Ohio State has seven recognized National Championships. Five of the championships came between 1954 and 1970 under Woody Hayes. They won most recently in 2002 under Jim Tressel in a controversial victory over Miami (YTM). They also have won 34 Big Ten Championships, including all of the last six years (Although last year's was vacated). 

Have they had good coaches? 

Since I discussed Hayes earlier, I'll focus on the 2000s here. Jim Tressel was hired as head coach by Ohio State in 2001. Previously he worked at Miami (NTM), Syracuse, and Ohio State as an offensive position coach. From 1986-2000 he was the head coach at Youngstown State. As coach for the Youngstown State Penguins, Tressel had a 135-57-2 record. He was then hired by Ohio State after John Cooper was fired. At Ohio State he went 94-22 including six conference championships and one National Championship. Amidst violations Tressel resigned as head coach on May 30, 2011. Ohio State needed a new coach quickly, so they hired Co-Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers Coach, Luke Fickell. Fickell went 6-6 as head coach of the Buckeyes before Urban Meyer was hired directly after the Michigan game. OSU allowed Fickell to coach in the Gator Bowl against Florida, and was hired as Co-Defensive Coordinator under Meyer. 

Urban Meyer has been a winner everywhere he has gone. He started his head coaching career at Bowling Green where he went 17-6 over two seasons before getting hired to take over at the University of Utah. The Utes went 10-2 in their first season under Meyer, and went 12-0 in the second. The undefeated season got Utah into the BCS. This was the first time that a non-automatic qualifier played in a BCS game. Before Meyer could coach in that Fiesta Bowl however, the University of Florida offered him a seven year $14 million contract. During his tenure at Florida, the Gators won two National Championships, went to a third BCS game (the 2010 Sugar Bowl), and had an overall record of 65-15. Florid went 5-1 in bowl games, with the one loss occurring in the 2008 Capital One Bowl against Michigan in Lloyd Carr's last game. 

After the 2010 season, Urban Meyer retired from coaching, saying that he wanted to spend more time with his family, and improve his health. Urban worked for ESPN for one season before Ohio State came calling. He was offered a 6 year 24 million dollar deal plus $2.4 million in "retention payments." Since arriving in Columbus, he has done no wrong, starting his tenure 11-0 heading into the Michigan game.

Where do they play?

The Buckeyes play at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. It has a capacity of 102,329, which makes it the fourth largest football stadium in the country. The Horseshoe was built in 1921, and it hosted its first game on October 7, 1922. 

Do they really have the "Best Damn Band in the Land"?

The Ohio State Marching Band was created in 1878 as a way to provide music for army cadets in military training. The OSU Marching Band is the only all brass and percussion marching band in the country. The band's largest tradition is the Script Ohio, which was actually first performed by Michigan in 1932. A fourth or fifth year sousaphone player gets the privilege of dotting the i, then bowing. 

Do they have a goofy mascot?

People from the state of Ohio are called Buckeyes. This is related to the Ohio State tree, the Buckeye. Brutus the Buckeye first appeared in 1965 as a papier-mache chocolate constructed by students. Its gotten slightly upgraded over the years, and is now in its most human form. Videos of Brutus: 

• Getting Beat Up by Rufus the Bobcat: 

• Not Handling Richard Simmons Workout Routine: 

Michigan-Pittsburgh: We Kind Of On

Michigan 67 (4-0), Pittsburgh 62 (4-1)

Combine Michigan's first legitimate opponent of the season with the venue that is Madison Square Garden and you've got a game that produces a vicious cocktail of excitement and apprehension.

Pitt started the game with a long possession that resulted in a long 2 for Lamar Patterson reeling in an offensive board. Michigan's offense wasn't clicking early, with a missed three from THJ and a wild 2 from Burke. However, Burke converted on a nice pullup in transition after shaking James Robinson out of his shoes about halfway between the 3-point line and halfcourt.

 As Dakich's complaining demonstrated, the play earlier was a bit choppy due to some ticky tack foul calls. Through four minutes of play, Michigan was down 4-2, shooting 1-5 from the field; the rims, as always, are unforgiving at MSG.

After another offensive board, this time from Talib Zanna, Patterson knocked one in from 3-point land, putting the Panthers up 7-2. Needless to say, it wasn't an ideal start for Michigan, who looked fairly lifeless on the offensive end and less than tenacious on the defensive glass.

A corner trey from Stauskas gave Michigan some life. Glenn Robinson blocked a shot at the rim and Jordan Morgan took a charge on the following defensive possession. Pitt was able to get a couple easy buckets as the half went on, but things generally weren't easy when they were forced to execute their halfcourt offense.

After a Michigan steal, Mitch McGary took it about three quarters the length of the floor for a smooth finger roll, a brief flash of the potential we have with McGary as perhaps a Jordan Morgan 2.0 type player.

 It wasn't a smooth game on either end, as expected. Both teams started to heat up a bit from the outside as the half drew to a close. THJ pulled up for a nice jumper from just past the free throw line in the secondary break. After a rough start, Michigan was shooting 50% from the field with three minutes left in the half, although only 1-7 from 3.

Michigan went into the half down 29-33 after a mostly forgettable and extremely choppy 20 minutes of play. Most disconcerting was the fact that Trey Burke was 3-8 from the field and Michigan only had 3 total assists as a team.When Michigan scored, it wasn't via the natural flow of the offense; it either came off the bounce or in transition. Michigan has NBA talent to be sure, but this isn't the NBA we're playing in just yet. Going forward, Michigan will need to attempt to remain within the system more than it did in the first half of this game.

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Halftime Numbers
Michigan: 0.94 PPP
Pitt: 0.88 PPP

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Michigan went down 38-31 early in the half only to rally on the back of a pair of Stauskas jumpers and another from Burke. Michigan even switched things up a bit on defense, moving to the 1-3-1 for a brief stretch, which, if you'll read Michigan previews from national writers, is most definitely Michigan's base defensive set. Snark aside, the zone did seem to work (and Michigan actually went back to it at the 10 minute mark).

After shooting zero free throws in the first half, Pitt got the benefit of a couple block calls in quick succession on THJ. Speaking of Tim, his 3-point shooting came down in a big way. After coming into the game shooting an absurd 73% from 3, he shot 1-7 from downtown in this one. He did finish 6-13 from the field overall, however, good for 16 points, largely due to him attacking the basket. Like I said all of last season, SEARCH AND DESTROY, TIM.

All of Michigan's 38 second half points came from Burke, THJ, Robinson III and Stauskas. Just FYI, two of those guys are true freshmen, playing their fourth non-exhibition college game, in Madison Square Garden no less. I think we might have something there.

THJ hit a jumper to put Michigan up 55-50 with 3:30 to go. The Panthers didn't score again until there was only 1:15 left to go in the game.

There were a couple shaky moments at the end --including a Pitt foul on a steal attempt that didn't look like a foul at all, with Michigan only up 3-- but Michigan hit their free throws and came away with a solid, if somewhat ugly, win in MSG.

I'll have more comprehensive recaps than this one up in the future, with player bullets and whatnot (this one is admittedly rushed for various reasons). I will be at MSG for Friday's championship game against Kansas State, so it will be fun to watch a Bruce Weber team try to "run offense" in person.

On a serious note, Michigan pulled out a solid, grit-astic win against a very B1G-esque team, which bodes well for the conference schedule. Michigan's freshmen looked good and not at all overwhelmed (for the most part), and despite Trey Burke's struggles from the field, Michigan was able to gut it out to remain undefeated.

Also, like the Michigan fans at MSG, I would like to remind everybody that we are playing some team on Saturday, and hey let's beat them.

/#BEATOHIO chant at a basketball game against Pitt

Shameless Self-Promotion Time (Iowa)

One last time. (HT: Mike DeSimone)

It's the Senior Day edition of Shameless Self-Promotion. I cannot believe that we have only one regular season game left. Where has the time gone?

• As usual, I wrote about the smashing victory against the Iowa Hawkeyes over at Maize n Brew. After Iowa had some offensive success early on, the Wolverines simply outran the Hawkeyes, literally and figuratively, all afternoon. And so, here we are, sitting at 8-3 with a trip to Columbus against an undefeated Ohio State team coming up on Saturday. With that sentence, I think I might have just unknowingly transported myself to the world of college football circa 1993-96. How about that American Online, eh? Pretty nifty if I do say so myself. In any case, all this frivolous chatter translates into one short, penetrating phrase: Beat Ohio.