Careful...Upsets Happen!

I was looking for some raw data concerning the history of upsets in The Game that I could turn into a blog post when I found someone already had. This article is taken verbatim from the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. Complete credit goes to Doug Lesmerises.


As you read, keep in mind each team's record going into The Game this Saturday:


10 OHIO STATE: 9-2 (6-1)
M*CH*G*N: 3-8 (2-5)


**********

Since 1951, Woody Hayes' first year at Ohio State, OSU and Michigan have played 57 times. Eight times, the teams had the same record going into their rivalry game. One of those games ended in a tie, as did one other game.

Here's the breakdown on the other 48 games, in which the team with the better record has won 63 percent of the time. But since 1980, the team with the better record has won barely half the time.



COMPARING RECORDS

Since 1951


Team with the better record: 30-18
Michigan with the better record: 11-8
Ohio State with the better record: 19-10

Since 1980

Team with the better record: 13-12
Michigan with the better record: 7-5
Ohio State with the better record: 6-7


RANKED VS. UNRANKED

Since 1951

Ranked team against an unranked team: 7-6
Ranked Ohio State against unranked Michigan: 4-1
Ranked Michigan against unranked Ohio State: 3-5

Since 1980

Ranked team against an unranked team: 3-5
Ranked Ohio State against unranked Michigan: 1-1
Ranked Michigan against unranked Ohio State: 2-4


BIGGEST UPSETS

Here are the biggest upsets since 1951, when a ranked team lost to an unranked team or a team in the top two ranked to a team ranked much lower.

1952: No. 12 Michigan (5-3) vs. OSU (5-3): Ohio State wins, 27-7
**1969: No. 1 OSU (8-0) vs. No. 12 Michigan (7-2): Michigan wins, 24-12**
1981: No. 7 Michigan (8-2) vs. OSU (7-3): Ohio State wins, 14-9
1982: No. 13 Michigan (8-2) vs. OSU (7-3): Ohio State wins, 24-14
1993: No. 5 OSU (9-0-1) vs. Michigan (6-4): Michigan wins, 28-0
1995: No. 2 OSU (11-0) vs. No. 18 Michigan (8-3): Michigan wins, 31-23
1996: No. 2 OSU (10-0) vs. No. 21 Michigan (7-3): Michigan wins, 13-9
2001: No. 11 Michigan (8-2) vs. OSU (6-4): Ohio State wins, 26-20
2004: No. 7 Michigan (9-1) vs. OSU (6-4): Ohio State wins, 37-21



**James' note: Denotes the biggest upset in the history of The Game according to Ohio State football historians and Big Ten sports writers.


PROGRAM ART COURTESY: THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE UNVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

A Little Ohio/M*ch*g*n History

I remember when I started hating that team up north.

I was living in Illinois, as I had since I was 5, so I didn't have the benefit of living in the 'Birthplace of Aviation' to have my OSU fandom nurtured. I had just started the seventh grade and my chemical science teacher was a smug, arrogant, feminist who insisted on making maize and blue references just about every day. I couldn't stand her in the least and she let me know that the feeling was mutual. So it was only logical that I hate the team she liked. You know, it's funny that hating M*ch*g*n felt so natural, so right.

Simply hating scUM wasn't enough, however. I couldn't deny the feeling of being virtually alone. I felt like an outsider undercover within the Midwestern kingdom of the Big Ten. All around me in the small farming community of Morton, IL were either hardcore Illini fans or had jumped on board Bo's bandwagon. About three months into school was when I realized that what I was missing was my own hometown team.

Champaign nor Ann Arbor could replace the city beside the Olentangy River. I realized I was an expatriate who longed to 'go back to old Columbus Town'. I couldn't be honest with myself and yell "Go Illini" and I certainly wasn't going to cheer on that team up north. So I embraced my Buckeyes, giving them my full sport-allegiance, and haven't looked back.

***

If you weren't born in these parts or if you haven't spent any time as a resident in the area, you probably don't know that the Ohio State - M*ch*g*n rivalry goes back further than American college football. It goes back beyond the War Between the States. It can be traced back to 1835 when a state/territory border came under dispute.

You can read a much more lengthy explanation of the Toledo War here but here is the basic storyline:

Both the state of Ohio and the territory of M*ch*g*n claimed this narrow strip of land from the Indiana line to the western edge of Lake Erie called the Toledo Strip. Depending on who you talk to, there was (according to Ohioians) or was not (M*ch*g*nd*rs) gunfire during the war but militia from both territories were mobile and active along the disputed ground. It took acts of Congress and President Andrew Jackson to force the territory up north to give Toledo to Ohio in exchange for the remaining land of what we now call the Upper Peninsula.

This was in 1836. It is now 2008 and I want my money back.

***

The first battle on the gridiron took place in 1897 between the perennial powerhouse M*ch*g*n Wolverines and an infant football club from Ohio State. The outcome was 34-0 in favor of the maize and blue. It wouldn't be until 1919 when Ohio State would get their first win in the series thanks in large part to the now legendary halfback Charles "Chic" Harley, who was Tim Tebow before Tim Tebow was Tim Tebow. The next two games also fell into OSU's win column again due in large part to Harley. This prompted the university to begin a campaign to build a football stadium near campus in Columbus. Ohio Stadium would be completed in 1922 and nicknamed, "The House that Chic Built".

The annual series, now known as The Game, hit the national spotlight in full force during a 10-year stretch of time when two men, who once had been assistant coaches for the same team, squared off in epic battles against each other to not only decide a conference championship but often a national championship. Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler became the four-star generals who would lead their armies into battle every November from 1969-1978 in the 10-Year War. Bo would claim victory in the 10-year war; his record 5-4-1. 1978 would be the last year Woody would ever coach the Buckeyes. He stuck a Clemson player who had just sealed a Gator Bowl win over Ohio State with a fourth-quarter interception.

***

It's been 18 years since I found Ohio State and made it mine. I don't hate my seventh grade chemical science teacher (anymore) but I still loathe those winged-helmet wearing bozos from Ann Arbor!

And I love every minute of it!

The record for the previous 104 games is 57-41-6 in favor of the team up north. This Saturday will mark the 105th meeting of, what ESPN in 2000 called, the greatest rivalry in all of sports and coach Jim Tressel, who has won 6 of the last 7 years, is expected to add another notch in the win column for O-HI-O.

Here's to an Ohio State record fifth win in a row over M*ch*g*n!

Here's to another pair of gold pants for the Buckeyes!

Here's to 57-42-6!

Here's to OH-IO!

Our Homecoming

It was a very warm summer morning. I didn't know it at the time but it was the dawning of a new era; a day that was filled with an unfamiliar excitement. My mom had tried to explain what "moving" was all about but my juvenile brain couldn't fully wrap around it.

Since rising earlier than usual, my brothers and sisters were frantically scurrying from room to room searching for items to secure in towering boxes that had been labeled with black marker. Every face wore the emotion of purpose. Everyone understood that there was work to be done before the movers arrived. Everyone but me. It was surreal walking around my house that morning and feeling an almost electric buzz in the air and not being sure of exactly what was going on.

Then the "Mayflower" pulled up to our front door. It was gigantic! To my bewildered eyes, the green and yellow 18-wheeler looked like a loose train car that had broken free from the track and rumbled to our house on Pepper Ct. As I stood with saucer-eyes and mouth agape, three guys dressed in blue jumpsuits hopped out of the truck and started into the kitchen. Slowly but surely, my house was emptying as the mayflower filled to the ceiling. Not long after they arrived, the moving crew had slammed the trailer door and my family piled into our two-toned brown suburban...it had been packed like we were going on a long trip. Two days later, I found all of my belongings in a new home, in a new neighborhood, in a new state.

It was 1983 when my family left Westerville, Ohio for Morton, Illinois. It wouldn't be until June of 2006 that I would return to the state of my birth. It would be two more years before I would really and truly come home to central Ohio.

Last Saturday, Amy and I successfully moved from NW Ohio to a suburb of Columbus, Ohio where family is just a few minutes away and my hometown is as close as it has been since I was 5 years old.

We are incredibly excited to move from what we've felt was a holding pattern in our life to the next step in growing as a family and as a married couple. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my ecstasy about being so close to my Ohio State Buckeyes, the only team in all of sports on whom my loyalty rests.

We look forward to what God has in store for us but we're hoping that my leaving meteorology and broadcasting after 7 years was a good decision. I've been trying to secure a new career in sales/advertising with little to no success. Please pray that my fortunes begin to align with God's plan for us!

Go Bucks!

The Sting WILL Fade

It feels good to be back on a regular schedule after working like a dog through most of December. Now that things have slowed down and I have a bunch of comp time to burn, I'll be writing more regularly on here.

The following is an article that I just submitted on our station's blog site. It is written for an audience that is rich in Buckeye fans so please keep that in mind. I am not suggesting that everyone who may read this is a Buckeyes fan. ;)

***

You may have thrown your hands up in disgust. It is entirely possible that a TV remote control took off from the vicinity of your couch and landed with a hard smack on the kitchen floor. If you are like me you said something to the effect of, “Why do I even bother”. One way or another you made your disapproval known after Ohio State’s crushing loss to LSU in this year’s BCS National Championship game.

Join the club.

When you are as emotionally invested in your favorite team as I am, you can’t help but feel the pain of a loss right along side the players. Not feel for the players…feel the pain with the players. When they lose a tough one you go along for the ride. There is a whimsical and fascinating connection that exists between team and fan. A win is the shear definition of exhilaration and a loss, unfortunately, is utter devastation.

Such was my mood driving home that night after the game in New Orleans. The funk of defeat hung over me like a tormenting fog. The only sounds in the car were the faint mutterings of two late-night ESPN radio jocks, the rhythmic staccato of a wind-driven rain pounding the windshield, the screeching of the windshield wipers dragging across the glass, and an occasional heavy-laden breath…my own. Sigh.

My face: expressionless. My joy: replaced. Visions of leaping Tigers and yellow and purple confetti precipitating from the heavens were dancing in my head. Memories of gloved hands thrusting a crystal football to the sky were playing so vividly in my brain. Alas, those hands were not that of Buckeyes.

It is to weep!

An ever-spreading case of sports depression continued to overwhelm me as I arrived home. Try as it might, the familiar warmth of domestic tranquility could not lift me from my lowly state. In the corner of the family room sat my stuffed “Brutus the Buckeye”. I’ll never forget his face when his telepathic greeting of “O-H” went unanswered as I drudged to the foyer closet to hang up my raincoat (which had become completely saturated in the time it took me to walk from the car to the front door). I felt that nothing would lighten my mood.

I was wrong.

As had been my routine since Christmas, I grabbed my copy of, Then Tress Said to Troy to read a chapter before bed. Having brushed my teeth and accomplished all other pre-sandman tasks, I opened to the night’s scheduled passage. I began reading the exploits of great OSU pigskin soldiers like Chic Harley, Rex Kern, and Howard “Hopalong” Cassady. Past players recounted tales of Buckeye coaches like Paul Brown, Earl Bruce, Woody Hayes, and yes, Jim Tressel. I slowly poured over highlights of Woody and Bo’s Ten Year War and that of Jim Tressel’s success in navigating through Michigan again and again and again and again and…well you get the point.

Then it dawned on me. Sure, the loss to LSU stings right now but it does not define the entirety of a football program that is one-hundred eighteen years in the making. These last two national championship defeats are two paragraphs on a single page in the vast encyclopedia that is Ohio State football history. The storied tradition of the school that rest on the banks of the Olentangy River has recorded down times like this before but it will live to tell a brighter tale another day!

Suddenly, I felt myself brake free from the darkness holding me captive. The depression began to lift and my heart cast its burden. I smiled, briefly. Then I closed the book, turned off the bed-side lamp, and fell asleep.

Sure Ohio State will have to walk the streets of college football for another year sporting a black-eye but just as sure as Troy Smith’s record against that school up north; the Buckeyes will achieve glory once again.

Just give it some time.

***

When to speak...and when not to.

I think I have chosen wisely.

Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite thing on this earth, besides my relationship with family and friends, is following my Ohio State Buckeye football team. I was born in Columbus; quite literally in the shadow of the Horseshoe. I've followed the team intensely for almost 10 years now. The screen saver on my computer has said "Ohio State...YOUR 2002 National Champions" since the day I bought it. My loyalty to OSU is so consuming that I refuse to claim allegiance to any professional sports team.

Cameron Clark once wrote about what it takes to be a true fan. Among a few other items on his short list, he said you know you are a real fan when you physically hurt after your team loses. You carry that sadness around with you for hours even days after your team suffers a defeat. Cameron, as he is so often, is right. I felt that way when the Fighting Illini came into our back yard last Saturday and embarrassed THE Ohio State Buckeyes in front of a national audience.

Gone are the dreams of returning to the BCS National Championship game to possibly avenge another embarrassment suffered at the hands of the Florida Gators last year in Glendale, AZ.

Lost is the hope of another unbeaten regular season.

Deflated is the aim of showing the nation that the Big Ten is still a tough conference filled with blue-chip talent and superior coaching.

Yep, last Saturday I didn't feel anything like I do now - thankful!

Illinois did the Big Ten AND Ohio State a big favor by winning that game.

Let's be honest here. I love my team, but seriously! Watching the Buckeyes climb the rankings by default week after week made me uneasy. Sure, Todd Boeckman was throwing the deep ball pretty well and Chris "Beanie" Wells was running down people's throats, but something just didn't feel right.

Should they be this highly ranked so soon?

Didn't we just see this?

Do I really want to see another inflated Buckeye team get to the National Championship only to get trounced by a wholly better squad?

No way!

The Buckeyes started their 2007 campaign needing to answer two question marks that are their NFL-depleted offense and a defense that got lazy by late November. It never really happened.

They were never tested as a team. They looked better than they really were because of their incredibly lax non-conference schedule (Youngstown St., Akron, Kent State, and Washington) and a cake-walk for the first half of their Big Ten schedule (no opponents ranked in the BCS when they played).

Here's the truth about this year's installment of the Scarlet and Gray.

Ohio State plays in a conference that is going through some rough times. While it's not OSU's fault that the Big Ten is a Big Joke right now, blasting cupcake teams does not a good measuring stick make! It's to the point where if you don't win the conference title outright most years, something is terribly wrong!

They lost a great amount of team speed and offensive firepower when Smith, Ginn, Gonzalez, and Pittman left for the NFL last year. This year's version of offense needs this year to get a real pattern going. They are sporadic at best, disappointing at worst. This was an admitted rebuilding year, it just didn't bite them in the butt until now.

The defense faced a legitimate dual-threat quarterback in Isaiah "Juice" Williams for the first time this season and it showed. It is not impossible to stop a mobile quarterback in college football, it just looked that way on November 10. And let's not forget the last time the Buckeyes faced a legitimate dual-threat quarterback...do we remember how that one turned out? Tim Tebow (and Chris Leak) chomped Ohio State to the tune of 41-14 in the BCS Championship game.

I've been leery of the validity of my team's success all season long. My closest friends will note that I've not been keeping a running, online tally of weekly game stats and team news like I have in years past. You've not heard me tout so-and-so for a Heisman. I've done no trash talking this season (well, except to those pour Michigan fans...and they deserve it). There are no guts in existence big enough to allow me to spout off about how impressive the Big Ten has been.

We still have to face Michigan in THE Game so we'll see what happens. I'm picking the Good Guys by 7 which would put us in the Rose Bowl to likely face Arizona State if Oregon wins out (please, for the love of God, win out).

But...

This true fan will keep his O-H-I-O mouth closed.

I think I have chosen wisely.