Jon Falk remembers the days when Michigan stunned Ohio State with regularity. He’s unwilling to accept the notion that those days won’t return.
It’s a bit of a tough sell in the spring of 2019. Six months ago, the long-time Michigan equipment manager witnessed — just like everyone else — the Buckeyes’ 62-39 dissection of the Wolverines in Ohio Stadium.
Falk sees a bigger picture. No matter how painful, the 2018 version of The Game didn’t begin the series, and certainly didn’t end it.
When Jim Harbaugh came to Ann Arbor, he inherited a 5-7 squad that sat home at bowl time and finished tied for 11th in a 14-team Big Ten. Harbaugh’s teams haven’t gotten over the top against the Buckeyes, but they’ve been knocking on the door, with multiple opportunities to secure a league title and a playoff spot.
“That just goes to show you how far we’ve come in the last four years,” Falk said. “We’re close. Ohio State got out there and they got ahead of us, and they’ve beaten us. But we’re coming back.
“I really believe we’re close. Two years ago, we had ‘em down at Ohio State.”
That 2016 game has to be the most painful of the Harbaugh era thus far. Up by 10 points in Ohio Stadium, the Wolverines wound up losing, 30-27, in double overtime. They thought it was over far sooner, and that they’d stopped OSU quarterback J.T. Barrett on a crucial fourth-down play.
Location, location, locations … game officials saw it differently.
U-M led 14-0 in Michigan Stadium in 2017, but couldn’t finish. Last year … well, Falk experienced a reverse flashback.
“When we would play Ohio State back in the ‘90s and the ‘80s, Ohio State would always be the best team around, and we’d go in and beat ‘em,” Falk said. “We’d play the best game that we had on Saturday.
“Well, that just reversed on us this year. Ohio State played their best game against us. If you watched them in the regular season, they didn’t play near how they played against Michigan…
“That’s just the way it goes sometimes. You catch a team that walks into a buzz saw. We walked into a buzz saw that day.”
The Buckeyes walked into a buzz saw in 1995. OSU came into Michigan Stadium undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the nation, against a U-M squad that had already dropped four games. The visitors left with 313 yards worth of Tshimanga Biakubutuka tire tracks all over them, in a 31-23 defeat.
OSU tailback Eddie George won the Heisman Trophy that year. But the best in the nation wasn’t the best on the field that afternoon.
“I saw Eddie George at the Rose Bowl a few years after we played them in ’95,” Falk recalled. “I said, ‘Hey, Eddie George, I’m Jon Falk from Michigan.’ He goes, ‘Ugh … Michigan…’ I said, ‘Yeah, how about that game back in ’95?’
“He looked at me and laughed. He goes, ‘You know, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I love to watch Michigan play. I know that they’re my arch-enemy.’ I looked at him and said, ‘You know what’s funny? We love to watch Ohio State play, too. Because there’s a respect there, that Michigan and Ohio State have toward each other.’”
Considerable respect drained away after Jim Tressel cheated his way to series dominance. The Buckeyes didn’t respect the Wolverines for not winning. Plenty of Michigan folks didn’t respect OSU for the way it did win.
Ohio State worries more about a Harbaugh-led Michigan program than it lets on. Meanwhile, the Wolverines require some take-charge performers to step up and get it done in the final game of the regular season.
Biakabutuka stands as one example, and the offensive line in front of him. Charles Woodson. Desmond Howard. And going back to Falk’s early days at Michigan, Rob Lytle.
Falk recalled the miserable afternoon in West Lafayette in 1976, when it was just one of those days. Undefeated, No. 1 Michigan flopped in a 16-14 loss to Purdue.
The equipment manager recalled Schembechler telling his team: “You blew it today, men. You blew it. You had your chance, and you blew it. You let it go right out the front door.”
After Schembechler stormed out, Falk dropped a gentle reminder to Lytle, that Michigan could still win the Big Ten and play in the Rose Bowl.
“Robbie got up and looked around to all those guys,” Falk recalled. “He said, ‘Men, I want you to know something. I played the worst game of my life today. I fumbled the ball three times, and I played terrible.
“’But I want you to know, I’m not going to fumble anymore. I’m going to play the best I’ve ever played for these next two weeks, and I’m asking you men to do the same thing. Play your best for the next two weeks. We’re going to beat Illinois next week, and then we’re going down to Ohio State and we’re going to beat Ohio State and go to the Rose Bowl.’
“All of a sudden, the players got up and said, ‘We’re going to the Rose Bowl.’”
And they did. Michigan destroyed the Illini, 38-7, and went into Ohio Stadium determined to overcome a team the Wolverines hadn’t beaten the previous four seasons.
Lytle rushed for 165 yards and didn’t fumble once. Michigan’s defense pitched a shutout, and the Wolverines won, 22-0, triggering a three-game win streak against the Buckeyes.
Michigan fumbled badly last November. Falk isn’t into making predictions. But he’s seen enough to know history can repeat itself.
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @BSB_Wolverine, @JB_ Wolverine,@AustinFox42,@Balas_Wolverine, @DrewCHallett and @Qb9Adam.
• Like us on Facebook
