Ohio State at Michigan: Buckeye interview with a Wolverines expert

Kickoff is scheduled for noon and the game will be televised on ABC. It catapulted the Spartans back into contention a Big Ten championship game berth and the conversation for College Football Playoffs. The team has embraced and taken on the identity of their passionate and fiery coach who refuses to give even an inch. “We’re continuing to grow, get better and better every week”.

But a bitter turn of events changed that in 2008, when Justin left MI in part because, as Justin wrote in a statement declaring his departure from the program, “I have great trouble accepting that those family values have eroded in just a few months”, at MI. Get around them after one of their four defeats in 52 games the last four years, and it’s not hard to tell they don’t know what to do. Or Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers?

But they do have a bit more stability than they’ve seen in weeks on the linebacker unit, as strong-side ‘backer Brandon Bell appeared to be in full health after an interception, sack-and-strip and fumble recovery against MI last week. What happens when your low point of the season coincides with the start of MI week? Not sure. Did specials teams dominate?

That run ends next season, as there are no more sons for Mike and Hope Boren – a pair of former student-athletes at MI – remain.

It’s here. The big one.

Sometimes, the most magical moments for Ohio State fans have nothing to do with scarlet and gray.

The Spartans now rank eighth in the Big Ten with 157 yards rushing per game, and Penn State is allowing only 153.1 yards per game.

And where is Ohio State? This will be the toughest test of the season, especially considering the emotion behind this rivalry. We’ve got a chance to go into a bowl with momentum. Even with the playmaking abilities of J.T. Barrett and Braxton Miller, Elliott is the workhorse and the heart of this offense. “While Ohio State has made a conscious effort to run both-something that was evident against Michigan State in the elements-the offense has been unable to find a complete balance”.

Michael covers Ohio State Football for isportsweb and is our guest predictor this week. The junior running back is the nation’s seventh leading rusher with 1,458 yards on 232 carries and 17 touchdowns this season. Head coach Urban Meyer addressed those comments with the team internally and does not expect it to be a distraction moving forward.

The last time the Buckeyes lost the week before MI was also the last time the Buckeyes lost to MI, during the chaotic 6-7 season of 2011. Dick Caldarazzo, an offensive lineman on Schembechler’s first MI team, remembers talking with Harbaugh during spring practice earlier this year. The Spartans are fifth in the selection committee’s latest rankings and would play No. 4 Iowa if they win the Big Ten East. Penn State is playing for five degrees in a bowl game. As far as predictions go, I have the Buckeyes winning a nailbiter by a score of 28-27. MI is sixth in that category (14.9). Ohio State’s quarterback “controversy” and the loss of receiver Devin Smith probably hindered it from being the team it was past year. He was 19 of 29 for 261 yards passing against the Buckeyes.

Since 1897, OSU and MI have battled against one another a total of 110 times (with the Wolverines holding a 58-46-6 edge in the series).

Ohio State’s games against MI have been close since Meyer arrived in 2012. The Buckeyes won eight straight from 2004 to 2010 and are now riding a three game win streak. We watched as the Mountaineers, trailing by a point, drove down to the red zone and took the lead with a field goal. They are two pretty good coaches. Tripped up by the in-state rival Spartans, Harbaugh’s Wolverines will look to hand Ohio State its second consecutive loss and put any chance of a Buckeye repeat to bed. The receiver and returner helped No. 4 MI rout No. 18 Ohio State 31-3, and went on to win the Heisman. Sweeney faces the pressure of finishing the regular season unbeaten and readying quarterback Deshaun Watson for the biggest stretch Clemson has faced in the modern format.