Michigan football stunned the college football world by coming away with a 13-10 victory at No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday afternoon for its fourth-straight victory in The Game.
Here are three takeaways from the Wolverines victory.
Wink Martindale deserves a ton of credit
Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale has taken his share of criticism throughout this season.
Some of it has certainly been warranted, as a defense with future NFL players was not playing up to standard for a good part of the season. Even though the unit has been fairly solid overall, it struggled in 3rd-and-long situations and against teams with above average passing attacks for the better part of the year.
But since the game at Indiana on Nov. 9, something changed with the Wolverines' defense. After getting shredded for much of the first half against the Hoosiers, Martindale's unit held Kurtis Rourke and company at bay in the second half, nearly allowing Michigan to pull off the upset win as double digit underdogs.
Michigan followed that up with a great performance against Northwestern after a bye week, allowing just 127 total yards and 10 yards on the ground against the Wildcats.
But the real test to see if the unit had truly turned a corner was always going to be against Ohio State, an offense that posseses some of the most explosive playmakers in the nation in Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Ebuka, Quinshon Judkins and company.
The Wolverines certainly passed that test and more with their performance on Saturday afternoon.
Ohio State gained just 252 yards on offense (its lowest output of the season), including just 77 yards allowed on the ground.
The defensive line has been great all season and were again on Saturday. Now, the secondary is starting to make more plays as Aamir Hall came up with a big pick in the second quarter to set the offense up for a big score, while safety Makari Paige, who was tested by OSU QB Will Howard all day long, intercepted a pass when the Buckeyes were deep into Michigan territory in the third quarter.
Martindale deserves a ton of credit for the adjustments he has been able to make late in the season to get his unit to click on all cylinders down the stretch.
Kalel Mullings etches his name into Michigan football history
With a general lack of a passing attack in the 2024 season, Michigan running back Kalel Mullings has been called upon to carry the offense at times this year.
In an early season game against USC, Mullings put the offense on his back and broke off a huge run late and eventually got the ball into the endzone to help the Wolverines pull off a win against the Trojans.
On Saturday, Mullings had to carry an even bigger weight against a tough OSU run defense when Donovan Edwards out with an injury in the second quarter.
By game's end, Mullings racked up 116 yards on 32 carries and a touchdown, which helped the Wolverines possess the ball for over 33 minutes compared to OSU's 26:25.
Much of the game consisted of Mullings having to fight through contact to gain three or four yards, but those positive gains kept the Wolverines in a lot of manageable third downs, in which they converted at a 50% rate.
In the fourth quarter with the game on the line, similar to the USC game, Mullings bounced off a would be tackler, got to the outside and ripped off a 27-yard run, which ultimately allowed Dominic Zvada a chance to kick the game winning field goal late.
With as big as this rivalry game is, players are remembered for what they do and how they perform in it, and Mullings will certainly be remembered in a positive light for this performance.
There is no doubt about it—Michigan owns this rivalry
What Michigan did to Ohio State in 2021-23 led to success that the program hasn't seen in quite some time, capping i off with a national championship last season.
But since that point, Jim Harbaugh left and took several staff members with him and the Wolverines were having a largely disappointing season coming into Saturday at 6-5.
Meanwhile, the Buckeyes returned many key players from last year's team and added some game changers on both sides of the ball in the transfer portal.
Ohio State was favored by 19.5 points by kickoff—yet Michigan beat them the same way it has the past three years.
This result has to leave Ohio State fans asking questions about the state of its program, and Ryan Day's seat certainly got a whole lot hotter after this loss to the Wolverines.
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