The Game: Cancelled

 

In a normal, non-pandemic, years, the Michigan Wolverines play The Ohio State University Buckeyes on the last game of the regular season.  In Michigan and Ohio, it is biggest rivalry going.  Many people just call it The Game. 

The rivalry started in 1897.  Michigan leads the series 58-51-6 and dominated the early years.  In the first 24 games, Michigan won 19, Ohio State won 3, and they tied twice.  Ohio State has dominated this century where they have taken 17 of the games and Michigan has only won twice.   The longest winning streak for Michigan is 9 from 1901 to 1909.  The longest streak for Ohio State is much more recent.  They have won 8 in a row since 2012.

The game is traditionally played the Saturday before or after Thanksgiving.  But, not this year.  Back in the summer, the Big 10 suspended football operations and then backtracked that decision when the saw that the SEC and ACC were playing.  They started the season on October 24^th with an abbreviated schedule.  The Michigan – Ohio State game was scheduled for December 12^th which is two weeks after the originally scheduled date.

Between 1897 and 1917, there were seven years they didn’t play.  Since 1918, they have played every year since… until this year.  This the game is cancelled.  The Michigan team has 40 players who cannot play do to testing positive for Covid, have been in contact with someone who tested positive, or had an non-virus related injury.

It is sad that the game is cancelled.  I do believe the players and the coaches wanted to play.  I also believe that, if they were to have played, they would have lost.  Back on August 6, the Ohio State coach, Ryan Day told his team, “Michigan better hope there’s a mercy rule, because we’re going to hang 100 on them.”  He was upset because Harbaugh accused him of holding practice before the NCAA specified start date.  On the Michigan FB Michigan chat boards, the Michigan fans believed they could and would score that many points.

To put it mildly, Michigan has had a dismal season.  We are 2-4.  We beat Minnesota and Rutgers and have lost to Michigan State, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Penn State.  Covid caused Michigan to cancel games against Maryland and Ohio State.  There is the Championship Week game in which the standing counterparts in the two divisions play each other.  If Michigan’s health issues are resolved, they would most likely face Iowa.  As they have been playing some good football of late, Michigan could easily end the season at 2 – 5.  Win or lost at Iowa, they have already set a horrible record of this being the first season in Michigan Football history where they did not win a home game.

The fickle fan base is calling for Harbaugh’s job.  This is the man, the Michigan Man, who was dubbed the savior of the program when he was first hired.  It was just a matter of a year or two until he would be competing at a level equal to or better than Ohio State.  Sadly, he has yet to beat them in five tries where we got pummeled in three of those games. People want to replace him with Urban Meyer which I think is a horrible and unacceptable idea.  Others want to have Tom Brady or Charles Woodson, two great Michigan men for sure, with no coaching experience whatsoever which makes another bad and unacceptable idea.

Michigan’s recent woes against Ohio State began after Michigan’s 1997 National Championship year.  Ohio State got tired of Michigan doing well with so many great Ohio players.  So, they hired Jim Tressel to be the head coach with part of his strategy being to keep the best Ohio players… in Ohio.  It worked and Michigan has struggled since then.  Having had three coaches in the past 14 years hasn’t helped either.  I believe another coaching change will put us behind as well.  Without consulting with me, it seems the Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel must agree, if the rumors are true.  After the end of this season, he is supposed to extend Harbaugh for three years, at a lower salary, but including better bonus incentives. 

Something has to change.  Hopefully, Harbaugh can achieve what he was hired to do.

We have another date with Ohio State on November 27, 2021.  While we didn’t lose to them this year, it would be great to get back on the winning track and start another streak of our own. 

Go Blue!