Only Michigan between OSU and perfection

COLUMBUS (AP) — All that sep­a­rates Ohio State from a sea­son for the ages is a con­test so big that every­one sim­ply calls it “The Game.”

Just five teams in the program’s 122 pre­vi­ous years have gone through a cam­paign unbeaten and untied.

The Buck­eyes (11–0, 7–0 Big Ten) can become the sixth today when they take on archri­val Michigan.

Per­fec­tion is exceed­ingly rare, whether for a base­ball pitcher, a pearl or a col­lege foot­ball team.

“That’s the goal for every team. I mean, why not?” said for­mer NFL and Ohio State All-American offen­sive line­man Jim Lachey, now a radio ana­lyst for Buck­eyes games. “Every­body dreams about that opportunity.”

Since the schools offi­cially saved the best for last and moved their biggest game to the end of the sched­ule in 1935, Ohio State has car­ried a per­fect record into the Michi­gan game 12 times, going 8–3-1.

Some believe that it is more dif­fi­cult to run the table and win every game now than ever before, due to schol­ar­ship lim­its, spread-the-wealth con­fer­ences and even small schools get­ting a chance to appear reg­u­larly on television.

Just last week many experts already had Kansas State and Ore­gon in the national cham­pi­onship game, vir­tu­ally con­ced­ing that they would win the rest of their games and put up unblem­ished records.

Instead, they both lost, leav­ing No. 1 Notre Dame and fourth-ranked Ohio State as the only major unbeat­ens left in the country.

“You saw last week with Kansas State and Ore­gon that it’s hard to do,” first-year Buck­eyes coach Urban Meyer said. “It’s a credit to a bunch of play­ers and assis­tant coaches who keep that focus in spite of all the dis­trac­tions. It’s such a credit to this team to be in the posi­tion they’re in. It’s hard. It’s real hard.”

Ohio State, of course, is try­ing to pre­serve its per­fect sea­son. But is Michi­gan moti­vated by try­ing to ruin it?

Mar­cus Ray, a for­mer Wolver­ines player who is from Colum­bus, knows a lit­tle bit about both sides of it. He played for the last unbeaten and untied Michi­gan team to beat Ohio State, in 1997. Coach Lloyd Carr’s team went on to win The Asso­ci­ated Press national championship.

Ray also played strong safety on teams that twice demol­ished per­fect sea­sons by Ohio State, the Buck­eyes’ second-ranked squads that were 11–0 in 1995 and 10–0 a year later.

“It height­ens the stakes and makes the game more enter­tain­ing to watch because it adds more fuel to the fire,” Ray said of hav­ing an unde­feated team in The Game.

“It works against the unde­feated team in a rivalry game. If you win, you were sup­posed to win. If you lose, your rival can say they knocked you off your high horse.”

Michi­gan coach Brady Hoke said nei­ther team’s record mat­ters in such an emo­tional game.

“It doesn’t, to be hon­est with you,” he said. “If you need any­thing to get amped up more for this foot­ball game, then you don’t know col­lege foot­ball and you don’t under­stand the impor­tance of this great rivalry.”

Earle Bruce suc­ceeded the leg­endary Woody Hayes as Ohio State’s head coach in 1979 and guided his first team to 11 con­sec­u­tive wins, includ­ing a win over Michi­gan, before los­ing the national cham­pi­onship by a point to South­ern Cal­i­for­nia in the Rose Bowl.

A team that’s hop­ing to make a name for itself by ruin­ing its adversary’s fault­less record is mis­guided, he said.

“If that’s the case, they’re doing it the wrong way, aren’t they?” he said. “You do it for the good of you, not the detri­ment of some­one else. That’s not good focus.”

Michigan’s fifth-year senior cen­ter Elliott Mealer, an Ohio native, believes too much is made of the ancil­lary things off the field.

“I don’t think there’s any way to raise or lower the bar for this game,” Mealer said. “It’s always impor­tant, it’s always intense.”

If the rivalry takes on even more rel­e­vance for Ohio State’s play­ers this sea­son, it’s because it’s their final game. NCAA sanc­tions for vio­la­tions com­mit­ted under for­mer coach Jim Tres­sel include a bowl ban.

So, with no chance to play in the Big Ten title game, the BCS national cham­pi­onship or any post­sea­son game, there is lit­tle left except to main­tain perfection.

Asked what a 12–0 mark would mean — par­tic­u­larly com­ing on the heels of an embar­rass­ing 6–7 record includ­ing a Michi­gan loss last year — senior line­backer Eti­enne Sabino had dif­fi­culty answering.

“I don’t know if words can (express it),” he said. “Every year you set out to win every game. That’s your goal. That’s the dream for every ath­lete in every sport. To have a chance to do that … We’re 11–0 with one game in front of us. If, at the end of this game, we can do what we’re sup­posed to do it’s going to be amazing.”

Posted by Jon Kleinknecht on Nov 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.