Don’t worry McGuffie. You only have to go through this three more times.
It was somewhere in the third quarter when the blood lust kicked in. The Buckeyes had made it through the typical second quarter doldrums, but found themselves backed up on their own nine yard line. Two plays later they were in the Michigan end zone and the crowd wanted more.
On a warmer day against a lesser opponent, the fans would tend to get bored and while Buckeye fans are not known for leaving early, they would at least be sitting down, chatting away as the game went on below.
Not today. The gladiators were being tossed to the lions and the crowd in the Colosseum wanted more.
From that point on, Buckeyes fans were on their feet yelling for Tressel to go for it on 4th and 8, they were disappointed when the Bucks kicked the extra point instead of going for two, the questionable safety caused an eruption of anger even though it meant nothing to the outcome of the game.
At the very least, the crowd wanted to see the ROTC do another 50 push ups (they did a total 147 push ups in case you’re wondering).
By midway through the fourth quarter, there wasn’t much left of the Michigan defense. The fire had gone out and heads hung low as they reluctantly lined up for each play. It was obvious that all they wanted was for the clock to tick just that much faster.
When Pryor dodged 3-4 tackles avoiding a sack only to find Sensenbaher 35 yards down field, it was near comical. Ohio State had reached the point of toying with the Wolverines and the fans loved it.
Todd Boeckman came in for one of the most poignant touchdowns I’ve seen in a while and from there, no matter how badly the fans wanted them not to, the Buckeyes called off the dogs.
In the end, this was this was the biggest win over Michigan since 1968 when the Buckeyes beat Michigan 50-7. That was the game in which Woody told reporters that he went for two extra points late in the game because only because he couldn’t go for three.
I will say this for the Wolverines. They came out way more fired up than I thought they could muster. There was a lot of pushing and shoving early on and Michigan looked for a little while like they might play to the level of the rivalry. In the end though, they were just outmatched.
Likewise, in the tradition of this great rivalry, there were some absolutely huge hits on both sides of the ball. Regardless of what took place the rest of the year, this was still the Ohio State/Michigan game.
So with five straight wins, the Ohio State seniors head off into the sunset never knowing the bitter taste of losing to Michigan. Former Buckeyes talk about the lifelong regret of that one loss or one mistake that could of changed the game. Fortunately for them, it is a pain they will never know.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The hit by Spitler on the Texas YouTube legend McGuffy was great. He won the Jack Tatum award for the week.
Agreed. That was an insane hit.
The Michigan blogs were all saying that McGuffie was gone. That hit could have mad the decision for him.
I will say this though, McGuffie did look good out there. He had some amazing speed.
I also found a video of the hit and updated the post above.