Columbus, Ohio
Don’t even think about it, Michigan.
Stop the campaign right now. Don’t go there. Go to Pasadena instead. The Rose Bowl has a swell parade. You’ll get a watch. It’s the granddaddy of them all. You just played in arguably the greatest game in the granddaddy of American sports rivalries, so let’s don’t tarnish the memory, the emotions and the meaning on so many levels of what took place here Saturday.
And a rematch would do that.
What took place before the largest crowd in the history of staid old Ohio Stadium would’ve made Bo Schembechler wish somewhere, some way, he could have died of heart failure two days later. Maybe Friday’s death of the legendary Michigan coach propelled the second-ranked Wolverines to a near upset of top-ranked Ohio State, the first time in 103 meetings that the teams met 1 versus 2.
But the Buckeyes’ 42-39 win had them nearly speechless with emotion and the Wolverines crying for one more shot. It had all the trappings of a national championship game at the most and an elimination game in the least.
Troy Smith will have to rob an orphanage to lose the Heisman Trophy after he threw for 316 yards and four touchdowns. Ted Ginn Jr. lived up to his hype with eight catches for 104 yards and a touchdown and, more important, he fielded Michigan’s desperate onside kick to ice the game.
Antonio Pittman ran for 139 yards for Ohio State; Mike Hart ran for 142 yards and three touchdowns for Michigan. Even Chad Henne, who will go down as losing to Ohio State three times, played valiantly, passing for 267 yards and two touchdowns and leading one very near colossal comeback.
The 81 points were the most in the series since 1902 when Michigan won, 86-0. It’s believed Ohio State played by the P.E. building back then.
“This game as a whole, if you look at Ohio State-Michigan rivalry as big as it was, it typifies what the rivalry truly is,” Buckeyes center Doug Datish said. “It was great. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had playing a football game in my life.”
For the Buckeyes, beating Michigan, hated Michigan, and winning their first outright Big Ten title since 1984, transcended what the rest of the nation took out of this game. The win puts the Buckeyes (12-0, 8-0 Big Ten) in the Bowl Championship Series title game Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz.
Paul Warfield, the former Ohio State and NFL receiver great, spoke to the Buckeyes before the game about his Big Ten championships and the focus needed.
“He really challenged our guys to have that ability amongst all this hoopla and I thought, like they always do, they will listen,” said Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, now 5-1 in this rivalry and 2-to-1 to enter sainthood in the state of Ohio.
Meanwhile, the Wolverines (11-1, 7-1) were screaming rematch like a heavyweight boxer who thought he got jobbed.
“I guarantee if we play them again it would be a whole different game,” Hart said. “We should have got them the first time around. We didn’t. So if it doesn’t happen, that’s our faults.”
Um, Mike, you had your chance. Why do you think you deserve another?
“I think we’re both the top teams in the country, regardless of what anybody says,” he said. “On a neutral site, it would be a big game. If I won, I’d probably be like, ‘No, I don’t want a rematch.’ Anytime you lose, you want a rematch against that team.”
The problem with his theory is Ohio State’s offense proved it’s the best in the country. Not even Southern California last year played against a defense with the credentials of Michigan and the Buckeyes thrashed it as if it was a directional foe in early September.
Michigan came in giving up only 29.2 rushing yards per game, had 41 sacks and had given up only two touchdowns in its past five Big Ten games. OSU tailback Chris Wells nearly doubled Michigan’s average with a 52-yard run straight up the middle for a 14-7 Buckeyes lead and the their 28-14 halftime lead was more points than Michigan had given up all year.
Tressel, with four Division I-AA national titles at Youngstown State and one win away from his second I-A crown, is becoming the biggest big-game coach in the country. His game plan crippled Michigan’s new defensive genius, Ron English. To defuse a Michigan defensive line that was no doubt the best in the country, Tressel spread his attack, using up to five wideouts at a time.
Ohio State opened with eight straight passes and the lack of a pass rush couldn’t compensate for Michigan’s vulnerable secondary. Smith threw a 1-yard TD to Roy Hall to tie it 7-7, threw a perfect 39-yard bomb to Ginn for a 21-7 lead and an 8-yard score to Anthony Gonzalez to make it 28-14.
“I would think he clinched the Heisman Trophy,” Tressel said. “I don’t think there’d be any question about that.”
However, there was a question whether Ohio State would hang on. Down 42-31 after Smith’s 13-yard TD to Brian Robiskie with 5:38 left, Henne led Michigan 81 yards, aided by a pass interference on safety Jamario O’Neal on fourth-and-16. Henne found tight end Tyler Ecker for a 16-yard TD and then hit Steve Breaston for the 2-point conversion to make it 42-39 with 2:16 left.
But Ginn recovered the onside kick, setting the stage for the 105,708 fans to storm the field, many wearing sombreros, and set up the debate about a rematch.
“There can’t be many teams in the nation better than Michigan, but I’m not going to get into it,” Tressel said. “My opinion doesn’t have a vote.”
Good. Like Bo, let this one rest, too.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
