Ohio State graduate wide receiver Emeka Egbuka speaks to Joel Klatt, college football analyst on FOX Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff, before the game against Purdue Saturday. Credit: Sandra Fu | Photo Editor
“It’s four quarters, it’s 60 minutes of football on one Saturday of the year that determines so much for the other 364 days,” CBS Sports national college football analyst Josh Pate said.
The Ohio State-Michigan rivalry is perhaps the most hotly contested and highly anticipated game every college football season; year after year, fans circle the date on their calendars, eager to see scarlet and gray clash with maize and blue.
There’s no doubt the rivalry is famous across the nation. But where does it rank among all sports, not just at the university level?
Joel Klatt, FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst, said the Buckeyes and Wolverines’ long-standing feud outshines any other.
“This one takes the cake,” Klatt said. “To me, it’s the best rivalry in sports.”
Pate agreed.
“College football, to me, is the greatest sport in the world, so if Ohio State and Michigan is the most intense rivalry within the greatest sport in the world, then I call it the best rivalry in all of sports,” Pate said.
In the past three years, Ohio State has suffered three soul-crushing defeats to “That Team Up North.” But this year’s game, scheduled for noon Nov. 30, could lead to the Buckeyes’ redemption.
For one, Michigan isn’t the powerhouse it’s been in previous years, Klatt said.
“For Ohio State, this team is a national championship-caliber team,” Klatt said. “Michigan is not.”
This doesn’t mean the Buckeyes won’t be tested, Pate said. Michigan has three years of momentum on its side, and “The Game” serves as the Wolverines’ Super Bowl, he said.
“For Michigan, it’s the Ohio State game and then over a cliff,” Pate said. “You can’t see anything past it. And so, they will absolutely throw everything they have at Ohio State. You will not have seen a lot of what they throw at you. That doesn’t mean it’s gonna work because if it did, they would’ve already been doing it. They get to work off the default position that they’ve already won the last three.”
Buckeyes key players heading into The Game
This Ohio State roster is more talented than its recent predecessors.
Offensive consistency is key, especially for the running back duo of Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson. Pate said he believes that if both rushers can get going and play complimentary football, Ohio State will win The Game.
“They’re balanced enough offensively to where the defense respects both facets; it doesn’t mean the stat sheet has to be even, but if the defense has to respect both facets, Chip Kelly can do more than enough to win every game they play,” Pate said. “So, it’s more than just circling one player. It’s the tailbacks, it’s what it takes to get them going — that’s my biggest focus.”
Klatt said what makes Ohio State so tough to stop offensively is the fact there isn’t just one player who opponents can target to slow down the attack’s effectiveness.
“They really have four superstars on their team,” Klatt said. “With [Jeremiah] Smith, [Emeka] Egbuka, Judkins and Henderson, you can’t take away one of them, or else the other three can go off, and then, by the way, Will Howard is also a great player, and Carnell Tate is a good player, Brandon Inniss is a good player.”
Klatt said the defensive line and safety Caleb Downs are his biggest considerations heading into The Game.
“I think that the three most important players are the two [defensive] tackles, Tyleik Williams, Ty Hamilton and Caleb Downs,” Klatt said. “I’ve always felt teams have to be built front to back and inside out, so the interior has to be strong. If the tackles play well against the run and push the pocket up, then it makes everybody better, and Downs is playing great in the middle of the field, tackling well like he normally does.”
Expectations
Klatt said he’s expecting the Buckeyes’ game plan against Michigan to echo back to the Nov. 2 Penn State showdown, which ended with a 20-13 win for the Buckeyes.
“They rely on man coverage; they rely on their athletes to be great. I would be shocked if they didn’t do something similar,” Klatt said. “In particular, when you look at the wide receivers from Michigan, I don’t think that Ohio State is gonna feel any sense of panic or apprehension in terms of playing man, which can focus most of the attention on the tight end, who I think is a good one: Colston Loveland.”
Pate said he simply expects Ohio State to get back to its winning ways, as long as the team is prepared to execute on the field.
“I would expect an Ohio State emphatic win,” Pate said. “I would expect the fourth quarter to be the kind of environment in the stadium, or even in your living room at home, where you get to sit back a little bit and you get to bask in it instead of sweating it.”
Some fans may be concerned about Ohio State’s ability to keep its foot on the gas, especially if the Buckeyes are up big late in the game. Pate said in his mind, there’s no doubt it will be full throttle.
“You pull out the knife, and you thrust and you take no prisoners. You’ve got to deliver a message that order has been restored, that was a blip on the radar screen, but things are back to the way they’re supposed to be,” Pate said. “It’s gotta be emphatic; if you can make it emphatic and no doubt, you just salt the earth.”
