This is an open letter to any TTUN fans that are scouring 11W to search for answers or just a flicker of light to help guide you out of your dark confusion.  Why does Ohio State continue to attack The Game with overwhelming ferocity and extreme prejudice?  What happened to bring on this torment?  To help you make sense of the utter destruction that your favorite team experienced on 11/24/18, let’s chat for a minute.  You’ve been led to believe your entire life that Michigan was a powerhouse program, among the elite of college football, unsurpassed in history with the most wins of any other team.  So why, for most of the last 17 years have you faced an annual drubbing against a team that deep down inside you sincerely feel is inferior to you?  When did things change?  Well, my weasel-loving friends, it is possible to nail down an exact date and in fact, the exact words that were spoken when your fortunes changed against your arch-rival.  With all that led up to that moment and all that came after, your fate was effectively sealed on 1/18/2001 with the words “I assure you that you will be proud of our young people, in the classroom, in the community, and most-especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the football field”.

When James Patrick Tressel spoke those words at halftime to a crowd of basketball fans at the Schott, there was no guarantee of victory.  There was no denigration of the team that plays home games in Ann Arbor.  On its face, that comment just seemed like a huge helping of comfort food on a cold January evening in OH.  To TTUN fans, it must’ve sounded like a trite comment that deserved a response akin to “aww.. isn’t that cute”.  But to Buckeye fans, we knew exactly what Jim Tressel meant.  This was a guy who “gets it”, this was a guy who understands what we’ve been going through, what this means to us.  It was at that moment, with those words out of that guy from Youngstown that we all knew things were never going to be the same again.  Jim Tressel is an Ohio guy from a part of the state where football is life.  He coached with Earle Bruce.  During his time at Youngstown State, he witnessed the heartbreak and frustration of OSU fans starting in 1988 and he knew exactly how to heal that.

Growing up in central Ohio, there were always those asshole kids that felt the need to be shithead Michigan fans, there to gloat and rub in an Ohio State loss.  During the 70’s and early 80’s, it was pretty benign because it would bounce back and forth and generally never became one sided.  That changed in 1988.  Now, John Cooper was a good coach and a pretty good recruiter.  Except for those OH kids that escaped to TSUN and South Carolina that came back to exact pain on the home team.  But he was not an Ohio guy, he didn’t “get it”.  John Cooper tried to approach The Game as it were any other, which was his fatal mistake.  By the time he began to understand the magnitude of what it means to be a part of the greatest rivalry in sport, it was too big for him.  You could tell that his butthole was puckered tight the entire week leading up the The Game.  He would take top 5 ranked teams into that last game in November and promptly lose.  Those shithead kids, who grew into shithead adults?  It was non-stop gloating for the next 364 days.  It was really bad in ’93, ’95 and ’96.  Then to top it off, Heismans in ’93 and ’97, mostly because of performances during The Game.  Shitheads started blabbering it wasn’t really a rivalry anymore because Michigan was just that much superior to Ohio State. And the results of 10 of John Cooper’s appearances in The Game proved them right.  Throw on top of that the antics of TTUN players.  Desmond’s pose, Woodson with the Rose in his mouth and who can forget that time the TTUN coaches performed some black magic f*ckery ritual to compel Satan to send forth his most trusted minion, an enchanter wizard by the name of Tshimanga “The Bludgeon” Biakabutuka (although, there are some who call him… Tim) to rise forth from obscurity and strike down an undefeated OSU’s dreams of Roses and Championships.  John Cooper no doubt experienced the losses making up that 2-10-1 record, but he didn’t feel it in his soul.. like the rest of us did, including Jim Tressel.

So on 1/18/2001, Tressel gave his speech and declared to all of OSU fandom “Michigan is not superior to Ohio State.  You will be proud of your team again.  No longer will you suffer humiliation at the hands of those hated, pompous shitheads.  We will take our hate and focus it into preparation.  We will dominate that team up north.”  That’s what he really said that day, you just didn’t hear it properly because you were still busy planning your John Cooper Day celebration for the following month to gloat about 2-10-1.  Shitheads.

So in 2001, Tressel took a 6-4 Buckeye team to TSUN and snatched OSU’s first victory in Ann Arbor since Earle Bruce’s last game as a head coach.  And we rejoiced.  Our savior had arrived!

The following year was a stressful one for OSU fans.  A shot at a national championship was within reach and TTUN was the only thing standing in the way.  PTSD from those mid-90’s matchups, not to mention the ulcer-inducing close games of that season, had every Buckeye fan tied up into a ball of nerves.  But, JPT “got it”.  He knew that beating TTUN was just what not only his team, but all of Buckeye Nation needed to really believe in themselves again.  Then he went to the desert and pulled out the monster upset against an unbeatable foe and we all knew, the torment that we felt was all over.  There will be no more 2-10-1.  OSU does have it in them to perform on the biggest stages under the brightest of lights.  The spell of TTUN was broken.

In 2003, with the pressure of trying to defend a NC (because we hadn’t had to defend one since the late 60’s), we took our eye off the game, and Tressel got a gut-punch to let him know what a loss to TTUN actually felt like.  We knew that he felt our pain.  His performance in every TTUN game he coached in 2004 and onward showed that.  His reaction wasn’t a Cooper-esque “it’s just another game, just another loss.  We’ll move on”.  Nay, it was a “that was the worst feeling that I’ve ever had in my life.  For all that is good and just in the universe I never want to experience that feeling again”, and then Jim Tressel never, ever let that happen again.  It didn’t matter if TTUN was favored or not, it didn’t matter if it was The Game of The Century or if Mike Hart tried to recapture some feeling of superiority that was slowly being beat out of that program.  TTUN would not beat OSU again as long as Jim Tressel was the coach.

Well, we all know what happened next.  LLLLLoyd Carr leaves, Rich Rod comes in to play the part of your John Cooper and then Jim Tressel gets caught trying to keep some players from getting in trouble over stupid ass tattoos.  TTUN also brings in Brady Hoke, who seems like he has a healthy respect for the game, but his fatal mistake was not really appreciating all that occurred since 2001 and not realizing that the veil of TTUN superiority had been righteously discarded by James Patrick Tressel.  Then, he beat up one of the worst performing teams that OSU fielded in over 50 years led by a not-yet-ready for primetime but, damn does he bleed scarlet and gray interim coach, Luke Fickell.  Out came the shitheads running their mouths again and showing their shitheadedness by referring to Ohio State as just, Ohio.  Obviously, the losses meted out by Jim Tressel didn’t teach them enough about humility and what the real state of their program is.  Urban Meyer would change all of that.

I’ll save you the recap of the last 7 years.  You know the story.  Urban is also an Ohio guy that not only “gets it”, but has an incredible competitive streak.  He, like the rest of Buckeye Nation, considers a season to be an utter failure if the TTUN demon isn’t once again exiled into their rightful place.  There are two football seasons for Ohio State: Xichigan Week, and the rest of the season.  Harbaugh, although a M-Man through and through (and a really weird dude), seems to treat this like any other game, which is perplexing.  You aren’t going to win a game that you aren’t prepared for, especially one that is fueled by a deep hatred of shitheads and a compelling desire to put a pompous, delusional program and fanbase into its place. 

Yet still, TTUN hoodwinks itself into thinking it is relevant.  Still have players that get all sorts of hype but really don’t do anything outstanding (Peppers, Gary). And what the hell was up with Harbaugh’s “Who’s got it better than us” rap videos?  Anyhow, that brings us to this year.  TTUN may have had a shot this year (I certainly thought so, I have to admit), but those players that bought into the mythical Michigan=Champions nonsense just couldn’t stay focused could they?  They had to loudly proclaim they are on a revenge tour and guarantee a victory against their arch-rival.  So much hubris from the players translated into off the charts hubris from the fanbase with so little to back it up.  Typical shitheads.

So here you are, shellshocked and angry.  Dismayed and dejected.  Unfortunately for you, there is no easy way out.  Blinded by all of your arrogance, you stumbled into getting absolutely destroyed by a team and a fandom that is focused on nothing but defeating you.  Year in and year out, nothing less than a TTUN loss will suffice.  There will never be talk of “it’s no longer a rivalry” around here.  OSU could curb stomp TTUN every single season, and there probably aren’t that many fans that wouldn’t enjoy every second of it.  Make no mistake, 11/24/2018 was a reckoning, as in you got wrecked.  Your program is demolished.  Your myth is shattered.  You are not elite, you are not champions and you will never be as long as you disrespect those that dominate you and put you into your rightful place of irrelevancy. 

OSU detests Michigan with a hatred born out of shithead fans and shithead players. The painful memories of what happened from 1988-2000 will slowly fade as those of use unlucky enough to be coming of age during that time grow older and new generations come around that don’t know how truly horrible the insufferable shitheads can be.  But as long as us old geezers still have a breath in our lungs, we’ll use it to say “Fuck Michigan”.

Go Bucks.  Beat NU!