First Posted: 11/3/2014
COLUMBUS – In the last three football seasons, no game has had a bigger effect on Ohio State’s season than the Michigan State game.
That is not a shot at a weakened Michigan program. It’s just a cold, hard fact.
When Ohio State (7-1, 4-0 Big Ten) goes to Michigan State (7-1, 4-0 Big Ten) on Saturday night, the winner will all but clinch the East Division of the Big Ten and still be in the chase for one of four spots in the first College Football Playoff.
Last season, Michigan State crushed Ohio State’s national championship dreams with a 34-24 win in the Big Ten championship game.
And in Urban Meyer’s first season in 2012, he called a 17-16 win over Michigan State the defining moment of a 12-0 season. Until that gritty win, he was afraid his team wasn’t buying what he was selling.
OSU quarterback J.T. Barrett, a redshirt sophomore, has been in Columbus only two years so, despite all the tales of the rivalry with Michigan, when he thinks of a big game he naturally thinks of Michigan State.
“This is why you come to Ohio State, to go play Michigan State at Michigan State. This is what it is. It’s big-time,” Barrett said after OSU’s 55-14 win over Illinois last Saturday night.
Two weeks ago, before Michigan State beat Michigan 35-11, Spartans coach Mark Dantonio and players like quarterback Connor Cook emphasized the importance of their in-state rivalry with the Wolverines.
Monday at Meyer’s weekly press conference, it was his turn. He said Michigan remains OSU’s only rival no matter how big the games against Michigan State have become.
“We have one rival here,” Meyer said. “What has happened in this situation is you have an excellent team. After watching them on film, they’re a great team. And they stand in the in the way of the Big Ten championship. They stood in the way last year and we failed.
“To say this (the Michigan State game) is a rivalry game would diminish the rivalry that’s been in place for 100 years,” he said.
While there is a carefully adhered to ban among Ohio State players and coaches on speaking the word “Michigan,” even this week there is no such prohibition on using “Michigan State.”
“This isn’t the team up north rivalry. It’s a good game and it’s an important game but it’s not the team up north rivalry,” senior defensive lineman Michael Bennett said.
“This game isn’t important because of last year’s game. It’s important because we still have a lot of postseason dreams and beating Michigan State is vital on that path. I think that’s why this game is important. There’s a different feel when you go play the team up north because it’s been a rivalry for so long. When you go into a big game, it’s a different kind of importance in winning that game,” he said.
Whether or not it has become a rivalry, this game is huge for both teams in the standings and psychologically.
Ohio State doesn’t want to have to grit its teeth through another season of seeing a chance to win a Big Ten championship get away because of Michigan State.
Michigan State, at No. 8, was eight spots ahead of Ohio State in the first College Football Playoff rankings last week. But the Spartans, somewhere in the back of their minds, know that despite last year’s Big Ten championship and this year’s rankings, they will be measured by what happens Saturday night.
A loss to Ohio State would lead some people to question if MSU is a team capable of challenging OSU year after year or was more like a boxer who upset the champion by having the fight of his life.
It was Ohio State that left last year’s Big Ten Championship game feeling like it had been punched in the gut.
After falling behind 17-0, the Buckeyes took a 24-17 lead, then were stunned when Michigan State scored 17 unanswered points for the win.
Rivalry or not, Ohio State’s players haven’t forgotten that game.
When offensive tackle Taylor Decker was asked Monday how long he has been looking forward to Saturday night’s game he said, “Probably since about a minute after the game last year.
“That’s a sick feeling. I’ll never forget that game. You never know what could have been. I know me, personally, and every guy on the team has been looking forward to this. They’ve had this date circled since the game last year. There’s a lot at stake.”
When Meyer was asked if he would put his undergraduate degree in psychology to work this week, he said, “Everybody knows what’s at stake.
“They’re the king of the hill right now because they won the championship and you have to dethrone them. How do you do that? You outwork them Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The most prepared team will win this game,” he said.
NOTES:
GIBSON COMMITS: Torrance Gibson, a 4-star quarterback from Plantation, Fla., in the 2015 recruiting class, verbally committed to Ohio State on Monday.
He also had offers from Alabama, Auburn, Oklahoma, LSU, Notre Dame and Florida State.
BOSA A SEMIFINALIST: Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa is a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, which honors the best defensive player in the country.
Bosa, a sophomore, has 14.5 tackles for losses and 10 sacks this season.
