ShareThisANN ARBOR, Mich. - There is not one snapshot moment in the past year that signaled the apparent shift in power in the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry.
Not the tattoos-for-memorabilia scandal at Ohio State, which ultimately engulfed the star quarterback and the successful head coach. At Michigan, it wasn't the firing of one coach who supposedly didn't embody the core principles of the program and the subsequent hiring of another who refuses to reference his team's rival by its full name. Rather, it seems all of those events -- and others -- fueled the rapid turnaround of both teams.
In Saturday's game at Michigan Stadium, the 17th-ranked Wolverines (9-2, 5-2 in Big Ten) will be favored to snap a seven-game losing streak to Ohio State and, in turn, align themselves for a Bowl Championship Series invitation. If successful, they would finalize a role reversal that's been building since last November when they were flattened, 37-7, in Columbus.
"This is a huge game for our legacy, as a team, for this senior group, for team 132," Michigan senior defensive tackle Mike Martin said after a 45-17 thumping of Nebraska last week. "We just have to make sure we finish this season out the way we want to, the way we envisioned all season."
Saturday will mark the first, and possibly last, meeting between coaches Brady Hoke and Luke Fickell.
OSU's Fickell, who was thrust into his first head-coaching position on Memorial Day when his boss, Jim Tressel, resigned amid mounting belief that he lied to NCAA officials, could soon be asked to hand the baton to someone else. Fickell appeared to be rectifying a messy situation with three straight wins in October, but the Buckeyes have since dropped two in a row and are just 6-5 (3-4) after last week's 20-14 loss at home to Penn State.
The last time OSU finished a season with six wins was 1999, four years before its reign over UM began. A seventh win Saturday would certainly mitigate the pain of a season that seemed doomed when Tressel resigned and the program disassociated itself from senior quarterback Terrelle Pryor.
Awaiting the Buckeyes, provided they're eligible for the postseason, is a middle-of-the-road bowl game, and not their usual winter trip to Tempe, New Orleans or Pasadena for a BCS trip. Instead, it's UM that can put itself in position for an at-large BCS berth with a win over the Buckeyes.
"This could be a big one next week," offensive tackle Mark Huyge said.
"The whole emphasis starting back in January when (the new coaches) got here was this game coming up. We're going to really be looking forward to it and be ready."
When Hoke got the job, he immediately preached of the game "being personal" and had countdown clocks to Nov. 26 installed inside Schembechler Hall. A former UM assistant, Hoke never wears red because of his disdain for Ohio State, which he refers to simply as "Ohio," because, as he says, "it's easier."
"That's what he calls them, so that's what we call them," safety Jordan Kovacs said.
Fickell's ties in this rivalry run deep, too. As a standout defensive player for OSU, he went 1-3-1 against the Wolverines, beginning with a 13-13 tie in 1992 when he redshirted as a freshman. As an assistant coach, he was 8-2, including the one year he spent as a graduate assistant.
"We know from here on out it's a one-game season," Fickell said. "And Michigan has always been that way. It will never change. It's the greatest rivalry in all of sports. And we're going to make sure those guys understand that."
(Contact Ryan Autullo at rautullo(at)theblade.com. Toledo Blade sports writer Matt Markey contributed to this report.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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