Thoughts on the Ohio State - Oregon game: Some UNCANNY historical parallels! The 1968 Buckeys are still considered to be the best OSU team of all time. They were undefeated and the unanimous National Champions in both AP and UPI polls (the official NC polls of the time), if memory serves. I well remember the OSU-M game in 1968. I was a freshman in med school (at Michigan). I was in Louisville for Thanksgiving break (the game was always played the weekend before TG). I went to the U of Louisville (my undergrad alma mater) medical library to study during the game. I came out of the library and saw a guy who just looked like a sports fan. The game was played in Columbus, in front of what was, at the time, the largest crowd ever to see a game in the Horseshoe. I asked the guy do you know who won the Ohio State-Michigan game? He replied Ohio State, 50 - 14. I still remember saying, wow, that was a real slaughter, -- crestfallen. This was the famous game in which Woody Hayes was up 48 - 14 at the very end of the game and went for two points, to make it an even 50. When reporters asked him why he went for two, Woody replied because I couldnt go for three. Now, all of this is just prelude. Now we get to interesting historical parallels. OSU returned practically everyone from that team, including their biggest stars -- Rex Kern, Jim Otis, Jim Stillwagon, etc. They were the consensus pick to repeat as National Champions. They started the season #1 and remained #1, right up to the Michigan game, demolishing every single opponent (i.e. no close games, much less a loss, in contrast to this years Buckeyes -- see table below, showing their #1 ranking and score of each game before Michigan). They were an overwhelming favorite, going into the last game of the year, against a two loss (both by blowouts) Michigan team, with a first year coach named Bo Schembechler. You know what happened -- Michigan dominated OSU, winning 24 -12. My new bride Connie and I were at that game, sitting on the 25 yard line, half way up. Back then, Michigan never came close to selling out what today is known as the Big House, and there were close to 40,000 OSU fans, in loud attendance, until silenced by Bos boys. Why do I bring this up? Because of uncannily interesting parallels. On the Bleacher Report blogs today are all sorts of comments from OSU fans, talking about all the returning OSU players from a NC team, including all the stars. Quite a few talking about the pounding Michigan will get next year. The fact that Michigan will have a new coach. And the game being played in Ann Arbor. And an OSU coach (this time, Urban Meyer) with a reputation (reinforced last night) of liking to run up the score. All Im saying is that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. The other thing I can say is that Harbaugh has a reputation of taking down number one teams when he has inferior talent. In Harbaughs first year at Stanford (2007) he had a team with a prior record of 1 - 11 and played a number one ranked USC team at USC, with a 35 game home winning streak. The prior year, USC had beaten Stanford 42 - 0. Stanford entered the game with a 1 - 3 record and was a 40 (forty) point underdog. Of course, Stanford won, in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets of all time. Now, all of this will surely come up in the pre-game hype next year. What Im saying is the 2015 Michigan-OSU will be HUGE, and Im predicting M will enter with a very decent, competitive record. Theyd got 21 of 24 returners on a defense which was ranked in the top 10 in several catergories (M had a terrible offense, which was most related to terrible QB and line play -- which Harbaugh and his dream team of assistants have a reputation for coaching up to high performance). So Im suggesting that some of you might want to take this opportunity to secure a hotel reservation and tickets for the 2015 game in Ann Arbor. Table below: National ranking (#1) and scores of all the 1969 OSU games, prior to playing Michigan and Bo Schembechler.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 21:00:45 +0000
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