Ohio State Hopes Futility Is History

Ohio State hosts Michigan this week in a game that means, gulp, everything for the Buckeyes.

Let the countdown -- or is that clampdown? -- begin.

Every time you tell someone that believing in hexes is folly for fools, that there’s no such thing as one school having another’s number, Florida State misses a last-second field-goal attempt that could have beaten Miami.

It doesn’t happen every year, but shoot if it didn’t happen this year when Wide Left I picked up for Wide Right III in the annals of Florida State football.

Michigan and Ohio State appear locked in a similar voodoo dance.

The Buckeyes play in a stadium known as the Horseshoe and, just to play it safe this week, they ought to nail one to the door above their locker room.

Ohio State is 12-0 for the first time in school history, No. 2 in the bowl championship series standings, and one teensy-weensy victory over Michigan from playing for the national title in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3.

So close, yet so Ann Arbor far.

In 1993, Ohio State was 9-0-1 beginning Michigan week and needed a win to go to the Rose Bowl. Michigan won, 28-0. This wasn’t Tom Harmon’s Michigan, either. The Wolverines were 6-4 before the game, but created enough hocus-pocus that two Ohio State quarterbacks combined for four interceptions.

“That’s one of the most embarrassing games I think I’ve ever been associated with,” Buckeyes’ Coach John Cooper said afterward.

Cooper would be associated with others.

In 1995, Ohio State was 11-0 and ranked No. 2 before the regular-season ender against No. 18 Michigan. Ohio State receiver Terry Glenn proclaimed, “Michigan is nobody. I guarantee we’re going to the Rose Bowl.”

Postscript: Michigan’s Tim Biakabutuka rushed for 313 yards in the Wolverines’ 31-23 victory.

Ohio State went to the Citrus Bowl.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been as disappointed in my life,” Cooper said.

No one at the time said, “Wait ‘til next year, coach.”

Sure enough, in 1996, Ohio State again was undefeated, at 10-0, and No. 2 before playing Michigan. No more Terry Glenn bulletin-board bluster this time, as Cooper ordered a media quarantine. The Buckeyes came out so tight they squeaked, settling for three first-half field goals instead of touchdowns.

On the second play of the second half, Michigan backup quarterback Brian Griese hit Tai Streets on a 68-yard scoring pass and the Wolverines went on to a 13-9 victory.

“Right now, honestly, I’m in denial,” Buckeye linebacker Greg Bellisari groaned afterward. “I can’t believe this just happened.”

The face of Ohio State football in monumental games against Michigan is basically the face of William Shatner staring out an airplane window in that famous “Twilight Zone” episode.

Then again, you can say history is bunk, that all those costly Ohio State defeats at the hands of Michigan were random and unrelated acts.

Actually, with another national title berth at stake Saturday, that’s not a bad way to approach it.

“I’m sure there’s some people that are still out there saying it, they’ve always had our number and we’ve been in this situation before and they’ve always beat us and ruined our perfect season,” Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel said.

Krenzel isn’t buying it.

“People can sit there and talk about what happened 10 years ago, but that’s just people trying to have something to say and trying to make conversation,” he said. “It really has no relevance on this Saturday’s football game.”

Buckeye fans have reason to feel better about the Michigan menace this year.

For one, John Cooper is no longer Buckeye coach. For all his abilities at talent procurement and pushing the Buckeyes to the precipice, Cooper had this thing about the Wolverines. He couldn’t beat them when it counted, going 2-10-1 in 13 tries, adding only triskaidekaphobia to this tale of whoa.

The more Cooper pressed, the more it reflected on Ohio State performances.

Take 1996: All year, against the judgment of many, Cooper started Stanley Jackson at quarterback over Joe Germaine.

Germaine was the better quarterback, but the team was 10-0 when Jackson started. So what does Cooper do against Michigan? He starts Germaine and the Buckeyes lose.

Sometimes, just cleaning out the coach’s office can help in matters of the Michigan kind. Jim Tressel replaced Cooper two years ago and immediately announced he was going to stomp some Wolverine tail.

Tressel didn’t need a recitation on Ohio State miseries against Michigan.

“I don’t know if that’s the type of history we study,” he said this week. “I think we do study what makes the difference in big games.”

Senior linebacker Matt Wilhelm, who played for Cooper, remembers in the spring of 2001 going over game film of Ohio State’s 2000 defeat to Michigan (known in Columbus as “why?2k”).

“We just broke the game down,” Wilhelm said. “You talk about the ups and downs of a season, but there’s many ups and downs throughout just one Michigan game. Whether it be how key a turnover is, or not splitting defenders and getting the extra yard for the first down.”

Last season, Tressel’s first, Ohio State went to Ann Arbor and beat Michigan, 26-20.

It was that game, not the ghost of Thanksgiving weekend past, that makes Ohio State players think this year is going to be different.

“I think we gained a lot of confidence going up and winning the way we did,” Wilhelm said. “Having control of the game for almost the entire game and really having no threat of them coming back toward the end of the game, that really gives this team a lot more confidence as a whole.”

Then again, Ohio State was 6-4, not 12-0, before last year’s showdown.

The Michigan win earned Ohio State a trip to the Outback Bowl, not the Fiesta.

The stakes are gargantuan this year, and Michigan has little to lose.

You can’t say the same about Ohio State.

USC/BCS

News item: USC sends two athletic department staffers to lobby the Sugar and Orange bowls for a possible BCS at-large position.

Reaction: USC is not going to win a head-to-head battle against Notre Dame with the Orange Bowl. If Miami, Ohio State and Washington State win out, the Orange Bowl is going to use its at-large pick on Notre Dame even if USC defeated the Irish.

USC’s best chance for an at-large choice is to hope a Miami loss puts Ohio State and Washington State in the Fiesta Bowl. In that case, the Rose Bowl could fill the at-large spots with USC vs. Iowa.

Here’s another way the 10-2 Trojans could not be denied: get to No. 4 in the final BCS standings. That would guarantee USC an at-large spot under BCS rules. It’s not as farfetched as it sounds. The Trojans are No. 8 in the BCS this week, trailing No. 7 Iowa by only 1.88 points. USC has two games left, while Iowa’s regular season is finished. Two wins for USC would likely vault the Trojans over Iowa and Notre Dame. From there, USC could get the No. 4 spot if two of the five teams ahead of it slip.

The Trojans would have been in even better shape had No. 5 Georgia not defeated Auburn last week on a fourth-down, fourth-quarter touchdown pass.

Hurry-Up Offense

The major conference races in a nutshell:

Pac-10: Washington State can clinch the title with a win either this week against Washington or at UCLA on Dec. 7. USC needs a win and two Washington State defeats; UCLA needs to beat USC and two Washington State defeats.

Big 12: Colorado has clinched the North. Texas Tech can steal the South with a win at Oklahoma this weekend in Norman.

SEC: Georgia won the East last week, but the West is still wild, with the title likely going to the LSU-Arkansas winner on Nov. 30.

Big East: Pittsburgh and Miami play tonight for sole possession of first. Pittsburgh takes the title if it beats Miami and West Virginia.

ACC: Florida State wins the title and a BCS bowl berth if it beats North Carolina State this weekend. If Florida State loses its last two games, though, Maryland can get the bid if it beats Virginia.

The “A” this year at Alabama stands for “anonymous.” The Crimson Tide, at 10-2, are among the nation’s hottest teams but aren’t listed in the BCS standings because the school is on NCAA probation. Unofficially, Alabama is No. 9, and having a stealth-like impact on the national title race.

How? No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 5 Georgia are getting quality win points for their victories over Alabama, although those points will count only if the Crimson Tide finishes ranked in the top 10.

The problem with Alabama and the BCS is that the coaches’ poll doesn’t include schools on probation, yet the BCS still needed to account for victories scored against Alabama.

So, the Crimson Tide’s BCS ranking has been computed without use of the coaches’ poll. Michigan ranks No. 9 in the BCS this week but is really No. 10.

Get it?

The Big Ten is by far the nation’s most top-heavy conference, boasting four schools in this week’s BCS top 15, yet is in jeopardy of not having enough bowl-eligible teams to fill its seven slots. The Big Ten has five bowl-eligible schools with two on the bubble. Wisconsin (6-6) needs to beat Minnesota to become qualified and Purdue (5-6) needs a win over Indiana.

Happy football anniversaries this week to Cal vs. Stanford and “The Play” game (Nov. 20, 1982) and Doug Flutie beats Miami, 47-45, with last-second pass to Gerard Phelan (Nov. 23, 1984).