Jagdaddy
Head Coach
http://athlonsports.com/college-football/being-michigan-fan-agony-unknown-mankind
Being a Michigan Fan is an Agony Unknown to Mankind
I can still picture former Michigan quarterback Drew Henson as he scored the game-sealing touchdown the last time the Wolverines beat Ohio State in The Horseshoe in 2000.
It’s glorious.
That game took place two months into my freshman year at the University of Michigan after growing up in Columbus as an Ohio State fan who endured most of John Cooper’s infamous 2-10-1 record against That Team Up North. Words cannot describe how good it felt to finally experience winning The Game — if only because I switched sides. Whatever guilt I felt was drowned out by me and my best friend belting out “Hail to the Victors” as Buckeye fans streamed out of Ohio Stadium with an annual look of misery on their faces.
At the time, I thought I’d finally be able to experience college football from the winner’s circle. Instead, being a Michigan fan has been an agony unknown to mankind.
Since that beautiful day in Columbus, Michigan has now lost 14 of 16 to Ohio State. And if Braxton Miller had been able to hit a wide-open DeVier Posey in the closing moments of the 2011 game, it would be 15 of 16 and an ungodly 13 losses in a row to the Buckeyes.
During this stretch, Michigan has lost to Ohio State in pretty much every way imaginable.
There have been the ass kickings, like last year’s 42-13 loss in Ann Arbor or the Rich Rodriguez years in which OSU won the three matchups by a combined score of 100-24.
There have been the oh-so-close losses, like in 2013 when Michigan failed to convert a go-ahead two-point conversion with 32 seconds left and 2002 when Will Allen intercepted John Navarre at the goal line as time expired, propelling Ohio State to a national title.
And then there have been the “rip your heart out and hand it back to you in a doggy bag” defeats that are reserved for when everything is on the line for both teams. I’m still haunted by Shawn Crable’s late hit on Troy Smith that was the difference in the 2006 “Game of the Century” and left me (right) looking like this:
But nothing could compare to what I experienced on Saturday.
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