Once again, the Ohio State football team’s season hinges on the Michigan game.A win over Michigan sends the seniors out as winners, destined for at least the Citrus Bowl, if not a BCS game. The team would have a chance to win 10 games for the fifth time in six years. A 10-win season and a Big Ten championship, coupled with a win over Michigan and a bowl win, is certainly a successful season by any measure.John Cooper would positively enjoy the off-season, and would probably haul in a fine recruiting class to boot.The losses to Purdue and Minnesota would be an afterthought, just like the 1994 losses to Illinois and Washington are largely forgotten. (The Penn State game was a little too lopsided to really forget.) A loss this Saturday, however, leaves the Buckeyes in a very different place. An 8-3 season, coupled with a loss to Michigan, would be very difficult to call a success. It would also drop John Cooper’s record in the series to 2-10-1. The Bucks would likely spend the holidays in some backwater town like San Antonio or El Paso, playing in a bowl that OSU fans scoffed at two seasons ago. Even then, a bowl win is far from a sure thing. Only twice during Cooper’s tenure (1993 and 1996) have the Buckeyes bounced back from a Michigan loss to win their bowl game. Six times the Bucks ended the season with a two-game losing streak (not including last season, when the season-ending three-game streak didn’t include a bowl).If the Buckeyes, who started the season 5-0 and ranked in the top five, finish the season 8-4, the calls for Cooper’s head will only get louder. The Buckeyes have been in this position before under Cooper, and have seen mixed results.The 1990 squad could have clinched an outright Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl berth with a win over the maize and blue. Instead, an ill-conceived option call on fourth down, deep in OSU territory, handed the ball to Michigan in field goal range late in a tie game. Michigan won the game 16-13 on a last-second field goal.The 1993 team entered Ann Arbor needing only a tie to clinch an outright Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth. Instead, they found sheer frustration. The Wolverines (4-3 in the Big Ten prior to the game) pounded the Buckeyes 28-0 and the Bucks were forced to share the conference title and go bowling two hours south of the Rose Bowl, in the Holiday Bowl.The 1995 team needed a win over the Wolverines (again, 4-3 in the Big Ten entering the game) to cap a perfect regular season and have a chance to win the national title in the Rose Bowl. Tim Biakabutuka rushed for 313 yards through an incredibly porous Buckeye defense, and the Buckeyes again tasted the bitter juices of the Citrus Bowl, as Northwestern won the conference title outright.The 1996 team had already clinched the Big Ten title with a 27-17 win over Indiana, and needed only a win over a slumping Michigan team (4-3 in the Big Ten coming in) to set up a showdown of the unbeatens with Arizona State in the Rose Bowl. Instead, Stanley Jackson overthrew a wide-open Michael Wiley in the end zone, Shawn Springs fell down and the Buckeyes lost yet again, costing themselves an outright Big Ten championship.The 1997 Bucks entered Ann Arbor with a chance for not only revenge, but also for a share of the Big Ten championship and a return trip to the Rose Bowl. Instead, Jackson and Charles Woodson teamed up to give Michigan a 20-0 lead, and the Buckeyes’ comeback fell just short, 20-14.Two weeks after one of the most bitter defeats in school history, the 1998 Buckeyes finally won a big one with the Big Ten title on the line. David Boston avenged a poor 1997 performance to torch the Michigan defense for 10 catches, over 200 yards and two touchdowns. The Bucks knocked Michigan out of the Rose Bowl, and temporarily put themselves in the Rose Bowl position. A Wisconsin win later that afternoon sent the Buckeyes to the Sugar Bowl instead.So what can Buckeye fans learn from the past? Pessimists will point to the 1-5 record compiled by Cooper’s squads in these games. Optimists will point to the fact that the Buckeyes won the last such game, and that the team nearly won again last season in Ann Arbor.Realists will point to the fact that the two teams are very evenly matched, and that the game will probably come down to coaching and preparation. Buckeye fans everywhere are holding their breath.
Thomas Orr is a senior in journalism and the Lantern sports editor. He would REALLY like to see a second win over Michigan during his time at OSU.