Game Thread THE GAME: Ohio State 14, TSUN 3 (final)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

Bob Hunter commentary: Pendulum swings Buckeyes' way, for time being

Saturday, November 17, 2007 3:49 AM
By Bob Hunter


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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Ten years ago, Columbus needed a psychiatrist's couch the size of Wyoming for all the Ohio State fans who needed to climb on there. The Buckeyes players, good players, were anxious and confused, like a Rhodes Scholar who had somehow flunked a high-school math test and was going to be given only one more chance to pass it.
The football detectives were out in full force, searching, searching, searching for a formula that would somehow bring a victory over Michigan. A huge pep rally? Tried it. No pep rally? Tried it. Former OSU football greats on every street corner? Tried it. Game-week practices to whip the players in a run-through-a-titanium-wall frenzy? Tried it. Game-week practices so low-key that the team practically falls asleep. Zzzzzzzz ? uh, tried it.

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

College football
On the rebound
Ohio State still has plenty to play for if it can overcome letdown after loss
Saturday, November 17, 2007 3:46 AM
By Ken Gordon


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Ohio State came to a crossroad last week on its once-clear path to the national championship game.
It was a quiet intersection, giving the Buckeyes time to reflect.
Who are we? Which way do we go?
Do we go straight, march into Michigan Stadium , win and see how the rest of this zany college football season treats us?
Or will we stray right or left, allowing the loss to Illinois to snowball into something worse?
"I think this week will define us," cornerback Donald Washington said. "Last week, things didn't go how we wanted it to. It kind of shattered a dream for us.

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

Wolverines turn things around

Saturday, November 17, 2007 3:46 AM
By Shawn Mitchell


The Columbus Dispatch
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- "Face it: Wolverines are just terrible."

So read a headline Sept. 9 in The Detroit News, and it would be hard to argue against it.
Michigan, the program with the most victories in college football, was 0-2. An ugly 0-2. An 0-2 marked by two home losses, including a crawl-in-bed-and-don't come-out upset to Appalachian State and a 39-7 whipping by Oregon.
With Michigan in danger of starting 0-3 for the first time since 1937, the bells were tolling in September. Mentions of "Michigan" and "Rose Bowl" were likely to draw laughs in Columbus and sneers in Ann Arbor.
"No question it was a very difficult time," coach Lloyd Carr said. "It's possible to crack under that kind of circumstance."

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

After the fall

Saturday, November 17, 2007 3:42 AM
By Ray Stein


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Associated Press file photo
Tim Biakabutuka ran through OSU in 1995.

Associated Press file photo
The Buckeyes won for Earle Bruce in 1987.

Neal C. LauronDISPATCH
Santonio Holmes goes up for a TD in 2004.

Ohio State University photo
Art Schlichter passes in the 1979 game.



Ohio State lost the week before The Game. Shock, horror, tumult, say the stunned denizens of the Buckeye State. Michigan lost the week before The Game. Anguish, despair, apocalypse, say the crestfallen Michiganders. As a matter of fact, it happens from time to time, but rare are the weeks when both teams lose to put a damper on the rivalry run-up. Before last Saturday, it had been 1959 since both OSU and Michigan stubbed a toe before each tried to kick the other's can. Here's a look at the series since then when one or the other has lost the week before:

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

Ex-coaches welcome, like to stay out of way

Saturday, November 17, 2007 3:42 AM
By Rob Oller


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The Bo Show lives on, even though the man no longer walks and talks his way through Schembechler Hall.
An exhibit at the Michigan's Hatcher Graduate Library pays homage to the emotional Michigan coach, who died last year at age 77 on the eve of The Game. It presents a slice of Schembechler's life and window into his personality.
A fair mix of humility and bombast, Schembechler once said of his 5-12 record in bowl games, "The Lord looked down and said, 'If he wins those, too, this guy would be absolutely impossible to live with, and we gotta keep this guy in tow.' "

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ToledoBlade

Mutual admiration must end at noon
It's time for Buckeyes, Wolverines to take the field

By MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER

ANN ARBOR - At some point, the expressions of mutual admiration have to end. The compliments and the laudatory comments have got to cease.

At high noon, it's time for Ohio State and Michigan to shut up, and finally play. They meet for the 104th time, and despite the continual changes in rosters and coaching staffs over the years, the singular importance of this game never seems to diminish.

Michigan floundered at the start of the season, losing twice in the first two weeks. Ohio State marched through its first 10 opponents with little resistance, and spent a prolonged spell at No. 1. Then both teams lost last week.

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[Buckin' A]

I never wake up this early on a Saturday...but I'm ready for some f*cking football!

O H

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

Rose Bowl bid on the line as OSU faces Michigan


the associated press ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Even without a trip to the national title game at stake, Ohio State-Michigan is huge.
Ohio State's hopes of returning to the BCS title game took a hit last week with its first loss of the season. The seventh-ranked Buckeyes still have plenty to play for Saturday at the Big House against No. 23 Michigan.
With a win, Ohio State (10-1, 6-1 Big Ten) would:
-- match its longest winning streak in the rivalry at four straight.
-- win a third straight conference championships, including consecutive outright titles for the first time in a half-century. -- likely earn a spot in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1997.

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

I never wake up this early on a Saturday...but I'm ready for some f*cking football!

O H

CPD

Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Bill Livingston comments on the coaches from Ohio State and Michigan

Saturday, November 17, 2007 Bill Livingston

Plain Dealer Columnist
Coaches stay and players leave every year, so the coaches dominate the perception of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry. Today the focus will be even more on one of them, when the Wolverines' Lloyd Carr probably coaches his last game against the Buckeyes.
Carr is an honorable man who kept this season's team together despite early defeats and roster debility. He owned this rivalry in the first half of his 13-year tenure. He will leave of his own accord, but the hot seat any big-time college football coach occupies became much hotter for him because of the man on the other sideline, Jim Tressel.
Tressel at first seemed so conservative he was almost a little Woody Hayes, only with a sweater vest over the short-sleeved white shirt. The signs were there from the first that he would become a success in the rivalry, though.

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[gost8]

O H
getting ready to head north....

GO BUCKS!!!

 

[Buckin' A]

O H
getting ready to head north....

GO BUCKS!!!

Be safe!

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

Problems vs. Michigan, Florida stick in Ohio State?s minds

November 17, 2007
By George M. Thomas
Akron Beacon Journal

COLUMBUS, Ohio ? This year is playing out with eerie similarity to the 2006 season for the Ohio State Buckeyes? defense.
After dominating opponents for much of the regular season, the defense gave up acres of real estate to the Michigan Wolverines in the classic meeting last year that OSU won, 42-39. Then, in the BCS National Championship Game against the Florida Gators, the Buckeyes were blown out, 41-14.

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

OUT-OF-TOWN COLUMNIST: Why Michigan has the edge over Ohio State

November 17, 2007
By Teddy Greenstein
Chicago Tribune
ANN ARBOR, Mich. ? We know players insist they don?t read the papers ? apparently they take an oath after leaving high school ? but do they at least see the headlines?
I think Michigan coach Lloyd Carr would want his Wolverines to check out the words splashed across Friday?s Detroit Free Press: ?Deja OSU: Losing Dominates Michigan Psyche.?

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

OHIO COLUMNIST: Why Michigan shouldn't win -- saving Carr might not save program

November 15, 2007
By Josh Hachat
The Newark, Ohio, Advocate
How does a Michigan fan approach this year's Ohio State game, which in a span of about six hours, suddenly took on less meaning?
Does a Wolverine fan still gasp for that victory like they have the past three years, hoping to get Lloyd Carr that win to put the program back over the hump?
Or do they secretly wish that Michigan would fall -- ever so gracefully, mind you -- to the Buckeyes one last time for the final straw in a miserable season in a Carr era that's suddenly taken a drastic turn toward John Cooper territory?

If Carr loses and the Wolverines fall to 8-4, there's no way anybody in their right mind can say he should stay. Not after this year, which has become an even bigger embarrassment than last year, which was a bigger dose of humble pie than the one previous.

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

Bucks ready for rude welcome
Jason Lloyd, Journal Register News Service
11/17/2007

The Buckeyes have dealt with their share of hostile environments over the last two years and done very well, winning at Texas, Iowa, Penn State and Purdue - all at night.
The challenge awaiting them today is different, and not just because Michigan Stadium is the biggest venue in college football.
"At Michigan, you sense the hate, which is kind of a good thing," senior tackle Kirk Barton said. "They hate you when you come to town, you don't want to wear your colors up there and they don't want to wear their colors down here because you're probably in fear that somebody might do something to you. That's just how big rivalries are."

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