The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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22 THE WOLVERINE JANUARY 2022 at Penn State that this team has grit. They have some spine. They can deal with a re- ally difficult situation and respond posi- tively, and find a way to win. "Those things we have not seen in re- cent seasons here. After that Penn State game, I thought, okay, now I really have to look at what this team is capable of." The fact that Michigan endured just one turnover — on a crushing blindside hit and fumble by McNamara — while re- cording seven sacks didn't hurt the out- look. "Again, we weren't turning the ball over," Skene noted. "We weren't giving up a ton of sacks on the quarterback. But offensively, these guys just look comfort- able. They look like they have confidence. They're having fun as they're doing it. This is absolutely different than the past few seasons." TEARS OF JOY Despite the growth and positive signs demonstrated by Harbaugh's crew over the course of the year, not many picked U-M to beat Ohio State. "I was one of those as well," Skene acknowledged. "I picked Ohio State to win. They just had too many weapons of- fensively and an ability to score points quickly. I just thought Ohio State was go- ing to find a way to win that game. "I could not have been happier, throughout the course of the season, to be wrong with my predictions of when Michigan was going to lose — especially in that game." Especially the way they did it. The 42- 27 thrashing of the Buckeyes featured Michigan dominance on both sides of the line of scrimmage. It underscored the de- fensive difference in U-M, OSU coming up 20 points shy of its 47.2 scoring aver- age, and 73 short of 100. For Wolverines who knew what it felt like to beat the Buckeyes — and beat them up — the moment caused emotions to bubble to the surface. "That game was just the culmination of this team putting its foot down against that rival and saying, 'NO MORE! This team is different, and we're here to tear you from limb to limb,'" Skene began. "What I enjoyed most about that game was the level of effort, tenacity, ven- geance, violence — you name it all — that Michigan took that field with, all the way through the end. I'm not joking when I say it brought a tear to my eye. "It did. I was sitting on the couch at the end of that thing, watching these play- ers, and I'm like, that reminds me of us. That reminds me of what we had, all those years ago, and all the previous champion- ship teams before us. "This is how we did it. We did it to- gether. We did it with an intent to inflict great physical and psychological harm on our opponents. Michigan took the field that day, and did it against a really good Ohio State offense. "That game was all about Michigan ab- solutely sticking the football down some- one's throat. They couldn't do anything about it, and man, was that satisfying to watch. At the end of that, I was speech- less. I was like, this is one of the best Michigan teams in the last 50 years — no doubt." Skene and playing contemporary Chris Hutchinson — Aidan's All-America father — performed on those five straight Big Ten champion squads. Charles Woodson, now on the FOX Sports broadcast team, performed on the '97 national champions. Countless other football alums looked on, screaming from the stands, the sidelines or in front of their television sets. THIS is how it's supposed to look, they knew. Early in the season, Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock described the 2021 Wolverines as a "team built to beat Ohio State." In retrospect, Skene could see what Hammock was saying. "One, the commitment and the effec- tiveness with which Michigan established its run-the-football identity," Skene as- sessed. "By doing that, you keep any op- posing offense on the sideline, watching. "That's what you have to do against a team like Ohio State, that's got that high-powered offense. You've got to keep them on the sideline. This team was built to do that, and they committed to it. The guys were getting better and better and better." The other one involved defensive coor- dinator Mike Macdonald, imported from John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens staff to do precisely what he did against the Buckeyes. "Defensively, we didn't show up with a big old billboard on the side of the build- ing showing everybody what we were go- ing to do," Skene said. "Throwing curve- balls, mixing up defenses and changing things around defensively did not afford the Ohio State team the luxury of just picking us to pieces, like they had in pre- vious seasons. "All the credit in the world goes to Mac- donald, and Harbaugh for getting Mac- donald and those defensive coaches, and keeping that Ohio State offense in front of them, and not letting them get behind. And obviously Hutch and Ojabo for un- leashing holy hell on that backfield and that offensive line. "They ran over the top of those guys. Those were two things to me, in that game, that Ohio State did not see com- ing and was not prepared for. It looked like Ohio State was the one on its heels, waiting for us to just bow down and kiss their ring, give them their W they were expecting. "The absolute opposite happened, and it was awesome to watch." Skene witnessed something else he loved that day. When Ohio State defen- sive back Cameron Brown ripped the hel- met off freshman receiver Roman Wilson, redshirt junior tackle Andrew Stueber, redshirt freshman guard Trevor Keegan and others advanced on him, backing the Buckeye down. The attitudinal edge in itself under- Redshirt freshman David Ojabo and the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes up and racked up eight tackles for loss, including four sacks, while allowing just 64 rushing yards and 27 points. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL