The Game

I can't call it, The Big Game, because that honor belongs to Cal and Stanford, but The Game, Michigan at Ohio State is tomorrow, so let's get it going already!

We are hours away now, and the excitement is almost too much to take at this point. I haven’t been this jacked up for a game since Texas/USC last season, and we all know that game lived up to the hype.

I was originally planning on writing something different each day in preparation for this game, Monday was going to be the coaches, Tuesday the Special Teams, Wednesday Defenses, Thursday Offenses and then today I was going to tie it all together and give my prediction for the game backed up by stats and all of the fun stuff that people who actually get paid for this do.

Then, I realized, I don’t need to do all of that. I’ve watched more college football this year than maybe any other year in my life and more than any normally functioning 24 year old should. I have seen 5 teams that could play for the National Championship, in no particular order:

Florida- very tough, fast defense, Leak makes mistakes that can kill them, which a senior quarterback shouldn’t make

West Virginia- yes, even though they lost to Louisville, they are the best team in the Big East and they will CRUSH Rutgers next week as long as Steve Slaton doesn’t get hurt like he did in the Louisville game. ***Rutgers should be on super-duper upset alert this weekend against Cincinnati***

Michigan- probably the best defense in the Big Ten this decade, just incredible front 7 and the secondary isn’t anything to scoff at. Their specialists, Chad Henne, Mike Hart, Mario Manningham, and Steve Breston give them weapons seemingly unmatched in college football

USC- the game against Oregon State was an aberration just because they lost, but that is just how good Steve Smith is. Hey, what if the Panthers found themselves in a draft spot with Steve Smith on the board in April, do you think they’d take him? And what is this going to do to fantasy owners everywhere? The ramifications are endless. Anyway, Smith and Dwayne Jarrett form probably the toughest wide-receiver duo in the country and John David Booty is getting more and more comfortable being the USC quarterback

Ohio State- simply the best team I have seen. Troy Smith, Michael Pittman, Ted Ginn, and Anthony Gonzalez (oxygen tent and all) form the most dangerous offense in the country. Add to that a defense anchored by James Lauranitis and this team is just better than everyone else in the country. This is the team that went in to Iowa City and tore the heart out of an Iowa team that could have threatened for a conference championship, but were never the same, DOMINATED Texas in Austin (yeah, it was early in the season and McCoy’s first big game, but that was just a beating, and Ohio State didn’t look like it played that tough), and hasn’t really been challenged all season by anyone

Just look back at that list, 5 teams, 2 from the Big Ten, the 2 biggest powers in the history of the conference meet in Columbus to decide who will go to the National Championship Game.

Few “Games of the Century” have lived up to the hype. Last year we had two of them, USC/Notre Dame and USC/Texas, which both lived up to the hype and were instant classics.

Will the game tomorrow be the same? In a word, no. I just don’t think we are lucky enough to live through 3 of the best games ever in less than 13 months, just doesn’t seem possible. Added to that, Ohio State is playing at home in the ‘Shoe, Jim Tressel OWNS Michigan and Lloyd Carr, just like the roles were reversed when John Cooper was in town, Ohio State has been ranked 1 all season and has gotten everyone’s best shot, they feel like they have to avenge last season (although so do the Wolverines), they have playmakers at every single position on offense, they have a defense that is getting better and better each week and doesn’t even really have an identity (like the ’72 no-name Dolphins ‘D’), and I think are just hungrier at this point.

Michigan has Lamar Woodley on its defense, probably one of the top 3 linebackers in the country, and the front 7 is phenomenal, but Ohio State has too many offensive weapons to be held down. The past three years, Michigan has put up 21 points in each game, and they will need to score a lot more than that on Saturday to win.

We will hear Brent Musberger tell us that this is the greatest rivalry in all of sports (I like it, but beg to differ, it’s not even the biggest rivalry in college football), that this is the game of the year, century, and of all time, etc, but all of the hype will mean nothing when 2:30pm CST rolls around on Saturday. For on this day, when the clock strikes about 5:50pm CST, the nation will know that the Buckeyes are the best team in all the land, and as Jim Tressel and his sweater vest, tie, and glasses walk to the middle of the field to accept congratulations from Lloyd Carr, he will glance at the scoreboard as it reads:

Ohio State 27 Michigan 16

And if for no other reason:



WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN FOR THE WHOLE STATE OF MICHIGAN, THE WHOLE STATE OF MICHIGAN, THE WHOLE STATE OF MICHIGAN.

WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN FOR THE WHOLE STATE OF MICHIGAN, CUZ WE'RE FROM O-HI-O!!!!!!!!!!!

WE'RE FROM O-HI-O O!!!!! H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE'RE FROM O-HI-O I!!!!!!!!!!!! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN FOR THE WHOLE STATE OF MICHIGAN, THE WHOLE STATE OF MICHIGAN, THE WHOLE STATE OF MICHIGAN.

WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN FOR THE WHOLE STATE OF MICHIGAN, WE'RE FROM O-HI-O!!!!!!!!!!!

-Until next time…