I just got done watching the 98 Game. Good stuff. Winfield and Plummer both had great games. I forgot how good Germaine was in the pocket. Great overall team effort. I hope we see the same type of game today. I have to say, all week, I have not had the same excitement about The Game as I have in years past. Then, as I was driving home from running some errands, it just hit me. I wanted to tackle anything wearing blue and yellow. I'm in the groove now, and I can't wait to see our men destroy those bastards from up north. I just put in the tape from 06. Watching Script Ohio just got me fired up. This is what it's all about.
I've read and heard a lot of people saying what I have said every year leading up to The Game: This is Ohio State/Michigan, anything can happen. But, I have to say this:
This is not the old Michigan! Gone are the days of the power running game. Gone are the RB screens (at least the ones that work). Gone are those double WR slants that worked so well. Gone is the tradition of excellence that was synonymous with UM football. What do we have now? An underprepared, underachieving team that has produced the worst season in the 100+ year history of the program. Think about it. OSU is perhaps one injury, and one freshman mistake from competing for another National Championship. UM is perhaps a few plays, and a Wisconsin meltdown from being winless. The rivalry was built on the premise that the matchup pitted the two best teams in the Big Ten head to head on the last day of the regular season. This year, we have a UM team that has no chance of making a bowl, or even salvaging a winning season, playing an OSU team that needs an impressive win, and won't get credit for it. Michigan has not held up their end of the bargain. Look at last year's Game. UM had a team full of record setters (Hart, Henne, Long), and Beanie more than doubled their offensive output by himself. This year, UM brings a leading rusher with less than 500 yds, and a QB with just over 1000 yds (who likely won't play). Granted, OSU's stats are not what you would expect, but we've won 3 times as many games (with a much harder sched). Considering all that, we need to utterly embarrass them on the field. We cannot let them come into Our House and make it a game. The new UM needs to learn a lesson about what it takes to play in the Big Ten. They can't come into Our House with a smoke and mirrors spread offense featuring unathletic QBs and undersized slot receivers, and expect to compete. Wisky and Minny should have taken care of business, and shut them out of the Big Ten, but they didn't, so it's up to us to send the message. You do not come to Columbus with a finesse offense. You do not come to Columbus with undersized players. You do not come to Columbus and expect to win a football game when you cannot compete with Toledo, Notre Dame, Utah, or Purdue. Ohio State needs to send the message to that carpetbagger joke of a head coach that you do not bring your county fair football team into the Big Ten and expect to win. DickRod made it to the big boy's table in the big east, but in the Big Ten, that's barely good enough to sit at the kiddie table. If DickRod hasn't gotten the message that he doesn't belong in the Big Ten, then it is our duty to show him what others failed to do. Fuck Michigan.
Since 1919, when Chic Harley led OSU to its first win over UM, The Game has been a launching pad for Ohio State legends. The names of the players who made their mark in The Game a well known: Chic, , Dye, Horvath, Janowicz, Cassady, Willis, Parker, Stillwagon, Kern, Griffin, Otis, Spielman, Rudzinski, J. Wells, Krenzel, W. Allen, Gonzales, T. Smith, C. Wells, etc. (I know I missed some). This year, we have the unique opportunity to witness an established Wolverine Killer (Beanie), and the WK of the future (TP) on the field at the same time. It should be a passing of the torch to continue the recent tradition of OSU dominance for years to come. I know that The Game is the stage where both teams step up their game, and anything can happen. But, in this year's matchup, OSU has the superior team, even though it has not been as dominant as most of us had hoped. The goal on the board right now, is to send those fuckers back north on a miserible bus ride, knowing that they just got schooled by a superior team, and there was nothing that they could do about it. Fuck Michigan. Fuck their sorry excuse for a Big Ten team. Send them home as losers.
GO BUCKEYES!!!
BEAT MICHIGAN!!!
