A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way

The whine factor is up from the Wolverine faithful this week — for instance. Generally you hear 3 things — the OSU/Columbus fans are awful; OSU fans are obsessed with Michigan; it is just one of several rivalry games for Michigan and not that big a deal.

My view:

• Like Men of the Scarlet and Gray, I’m tired of the “Ooh, Columbus is disgusting” thread and not going to deal with it anymore. Columbus is an urban area, when urban crowds and alcohol and events mix, shit happens. It is not about Ohio — look at Detroit after Pistons championships, or around Halloween. Judgement goes out the window when mobs form and alcohol flows. Obviously the university and city need to do their best to stem the craziness, but this is not something deep in the DNA of Ohio residents and doesn’t reflect the behaviour of most fans. If you don’t like it, don’t go to big sporting events in big urban areas.
• You call it obsession, I call it focus. Focus always wins. And why would you not focus on this game? Winning generally means at least a part of the Big10 championship, a trip at least to the Rose Bowl, and perhaps a shot at a national championship. To not focus on this game would be irresponsible.
• Just another rivalry game? So that is why it is always the last game of the season, and why national media have crowned it the top rivalry in sports, etc. You can call it just another rivalry game like an MSU game or ND game if you want — but go read that focus point again.

Just doing this as a public service. The whining doesn’t bother me. It just shows how deep OSU is in the heads of the Michigan community, and contributes to performance anxiety in next year’s game.

Life is good. I never expected this many points. Seems like you have to give the offensive lines on both teams a lot of credit as they allowed QBs time to get things done.

Prices on stubhub and ebay for the national championship game are stratospheric — $1500 a seat.

• Literary themes in Saturday’s game — “Where Ohio State heaves, Michigan hos; where the Wolverines yin, the Buckeyes yang. Where Troy Smith, um, Marcos, LaMarr Woodley Polos.”
• How Ohio State Wins — “If – you know, if – OSU can get out into its familiar advantage, perhaps aided by a giveaway, Michigan’s odds of avoiding falling into a one-dimensional game are not significantly better than those of Texas or Iowa.”
• Theories and Axioms – “Michigan is not going to run on 80% of its first downs, nor is it going to close up shop with a two-touchdown lead. I’ve tried to note the divergent philosophies Michigan employs against teams they respect and teams they think they can roll over.”

BBC SPORT | Other Sport… | American Football | The real Varsity game

In case you need help getting in the mood, ESPNtv.com – ESPN Classic is showing past games daily, as well as one hour summaries of key games. I saw parts of the ’69 loss again, damn we should have won that. And parts of the 74 12-10 OSU win.

Per KOMO-TV – Seattle, Washington – Program Schedule, The Game is not in HD in Seattle. Even tho the Cal/USC game later in the day is. ??  Is this a Seattle problem only, is The Game on in HD anywhere?

UPDATE: got an email response from KOMO, it will be on in HD, their website just isn’t correct. Whew.

• Classic jokes at Michigan Sucks and at rivalfanatics –  Q:  An OSU fan and a Michigan fan are in the third grade. Who’s bigger? A: The Michigan fan… he’s 18 years old.
• T-shirts at MichiganSux, cafepress, MuckFichigan
• Cafepress bumper sticker

Men of the Scarlet and Gray ? Blog Archive ? Data on common opponents — heartwarming for buckeye fans. Tho our turnover trend is a little disturbing.

(BTW if you are looking for non-Game posts this week, well don’t hold your breath).

Awesome — YouTube – Heisman Chase – Desert and New York — best rendering of a Buckeye ever.

Emulating various internet posts about Chuck Norris, the legend of Troy Smith. My favorite: “Troy Smith’s handshake grip is so strong he once inadvertantly turned a man into a diamond.”

I don’t think there is any Wolverine I hate more than Tim Biakabutuka — he made OSU look silly in ’95. A classic game of the Cooper years, OSU came in undefeated and threw up. I still feel the pain.