Gameday Skull Session: Get Dumped Then, Team Up North

IT. IS. TIME. for Ohio State to dump Michigan so hard that it makes the Wolverines irrelevant in The Game for another 20-25 years (or more!).

One last time, let's take in Ohio State's Team Up North Game Trailer.

The Legacy. The Rivalry. The Gae.pic.twitter.com/kopDhd89BG

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 28, 2024

Have a good GAMEDAY.

 MORE THAN A GAME. Before Ohio State and Michigan faced off in The Game on Nov. 27, 2021, I wrote a prediction for Buckeye Sports Bulletin:​

On Oct. 29, 1999, I was born in The Ohio State University hospital as the fourth child of two loving parents. Since that momentous day over 22 years ago, Michigan has won The Game four times. Since 2001, the Buckeyes are 17-2 against the Wolverines.

The first Michigan victory came in 2003 when quarterback John Navarre made several big plays, throwing for 278 yards and two touchdowns to lead the fifth-ranked Wolverines to a 35-21 win that ended No. 4 Ohio State’s hopes for a repeat national title.

The second win came in 2011 when now-Cincinnati lead man Luke Fickell was the interim head coach of Ohio State after university officials asked Jim Tressel to retire after “Tattoo Gate.” The No. 15 Wolverines beat the middling Buckeyes 40-34 in Ann Arbor, sending quarterback Braxton Miller and company to the Gator Bowl, where they would lose to Florida and finish with a 6-7 record.

Other than those two games, Ohio State has dominated the series in the last 20 years, holding a 17-2 record under Tressel, Fickell, Meyer and Day. The Buckeyes enter this year’s contest with the confidence of a team that’s won eight straight games in the series, with few of those games ending in close margins. The 2021 Wolverines are different than they’ve been in years past — more explosive, motivated and talented — but I’ve heard it all before.

Until Jim Harbaugh and Michigan prove me wrong, I’ll take the Buckeyes.

Over the next three seasons, Jim Harbaugh and Michigan proved me wrong. (Sort of, as I'll explain in a second.) That pissed me off. The losses did, of course, but also the fact that the Wolverines cheated to make those results happen – and that came after the Wolverines used COVID-19 as an excuse to duck out of The Game in 2020!

On Oct. 19, 2023, the NCAA launched a probe into Michigan for "allegations of sign-stealing" in the Wolverine football program. One month later, the NCAA said it could prove Connor Stalions created and operated the illegal, in-person advanced scouting operation. That operation (and the proof it occurred) is the reason Stalions resigned, the Big Ten suspended Harbaugh for the 2023 matchup and Michigan fired linebackers coach Chris Partridge.

It's also the reason Ohio State suffered three consecutive losses to Michigan. (One could argue 2023 was fair and square, as NCAA president Charlie Baker would put it, but even then, it feels inarguable that the Wolverines used Stalions' information to their advantage in 2021 and 2022.)

While Stalions wasn't the reason, he was a reason the streak has occurred. After all, his work allowed a dead-in-the-water program in 2020 to emerge as back-to-back-to-back winners of The Game, back-to-back-to-back Big Ten champions and the 2023 College Football Playoff title winners.

** boils with anger **

You know what?

Michigan has proven nothing to me over the past three seasons.

We are back to square one.

Since Oct. 29, 1999, I've never entered the Saturday of The Game believing that Ohio State would lose to Michigan. That 24-year streak now extends to 25.

When Ohio State and Michigan meet at noon, Will Howard will lead an offense that also features TreVeyon Henderson, Quinshon Judkins, Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate. Michigan defensive tackles Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant will do their best to slow that offense down, but with Will Johnson sidelined with business-decision-itis, the Wolverines won't have the talent or depth to keep the Buckeyes off the board.

On the other side of the ball, Ohio State's No. 1-ranked defense will suffocate a Michigan offense that cannot complete a forward pass. The Wolverines' best chance to have success on offense will be explosive runs from Donovan Edwards and Kalel Mullings. Still, the Buckeyes have an answer for that, and his name is Caleb Downs, who has never, ever missed an open-field tackle.

Now, make no mistake, the Game will have some tense moments, as it always does. But Ohio State will come out on top, as they have for (almost) all my life when the field was level. When they do, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes will erase Michigan's accomplishments of the past three seasons and remind us of what the rivalry looks like at its best – with Ohio State on top.

Prediction: Ohio State 38, Michigan 17

 THE MENU. The final Saturday of the regular season means it's Rivalry Week in college football. Welcome to the weekend of The Game, the Iron Bowl, the Palmetto Bowl and more.

Here is the complete schedule for Saturday:

 MY PICKS. Listen, I want to make some picks here, but I am laser-focused on The Game. Rivalry Week in college football means Alabama-Auburn, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Florida State-Florida, Clemson-South Carolina and some others, but Ohio State-Michigan is the best of them all, so I have to pick it.

• No. 2 Ohio State (-19.5) vs. Michigan: The Buckeyes cover and win because that's what great teams do. Ohio State is a great team — not a good team, but a great team. The Wolverines don't have what it takes to beat the Buckeyes in four consecutive seasons. 

I'm all in.

 A TRADITION WITH UNKNOWN ORIGINS. When did Ohio State begin its tradition of crossing out M's during The Game Week? The answer is unclear, according to Nathan Hart of The Columbus Dispatch. However, social media features some clues.

The first time the Ohio State Buckeyes Facebook page featured the tradition was in a post on Nov. 22, 2011, showing a campus sign with crossed out letters.

The tradition received an official stamp of approval in 2013 when then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich issued a resolution declaring the day of the game "Scarlet Letter Saturday," urging Ohioans to avoid using the letter "M."

However, it wasn't until 2014 that the Ohio State Buckeyes Facebook page started using the now iconic (scarlet X) emoji, and even then, they only used it once in the lead up to that year's game.

The school used the red X a few times in 2015, and then in 2016 the self-censorship became widespread. That year, the Ohio State Football Facebook page used the (scarlet X) frequently in its posts.

Today, just eight years later, you won't see the letter "M" anywhere on Ohio State's social media pages leading up to the game.

This is one of my favorite traditions during The Game Week.

My wife and I live in an apartment complex that uses letters instead of numbers, and our apartment letter is M. Because both of us are Ohio State graduates – my wife being a two-time graduate after she received her master's degree from the university in 2023 – you better believe she crossed out that M with some scarlet tape this week. It's been a fun conversation starter with some of our neighbors, particularly one whom we learned hails from That State Up North. I told him, “Sorry, not sorry, for all the cheering you'll hear on Saturday.”

Beat Blue.

 SONG OF THE DAY. “We Don't Give a Damn for the Whole State of Michigan” - TBDBITL.

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