The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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team like this. Something is different. We have fun; there's a different energy.'" Dad, and national pundits, remained doubters for a while. "That's great that you're having fun, but you still have to be a good football team," Hutchinson mused. "I was skeptical of what that meant. Until you're three-quarters of the way through the season, you didn't really know how good we were. "We very easily could have lost that Ne- braska game. There were multiple points along last season that we could have been derailed and had a very different legacy to deal with. "One of Aidan's key moments was at half- time of the Wisconsin game — which was a one-point game at the half. [Jim] Harbaugh says to Aidan, 'This is a different locker room. This is not the team from two years ago. There is something different about this team.' "When I first heard that Harbaugh knew there was something different about this team … you don't know. We're on the road and only winning by one. We got run out of that stadium the last time we were there. This team comes out of that locker room and just lights a fire. "To me, that was one of those big mo- ments. OK, this is a different team." Quarterback Cade McNamara, a senior on this year's squad, noted on former Wolver- ine Taylor Lewan's podcast the difference amounted to previously hoping to win (or not to lose), compared to going out to kick OSU's backside. Ebbs And Flows Of 'The Game' Through The Years When many longtime fans think of Michigan- Ohio State, they think of Bo and Woody, 5-4-1, a back-and-forth struggle that never saw either side gain a major advantage. For large parts of the 125-year-old series, that hasn't been the case. Big runs are the order of the day, with one team suffering and the other strutting. The Wolverines came flying out of the gate when the series began in 1897, blanking the Buckeyes that year, 36-0. In fact, Ohio State failed to score a point in the first five meetings, getting outscored 179-0, although it managed a 0-0 tie in 1900. Michigan began the series 13-0-2, with OSU not posting a victory until a 13-3 triumph in 1919. The Wolverines then went 9-3 through the 1920s and early 1930s. Four straight Ohio State wins (1934-37) sig- naled a brief change. The Wolverines still went 10-2-2 from 1938 to 1951, but then the tide began turning in earnest. The teams split, 5-5, during the 1950s, and OSU went 7-3 in the '60s. The final game of the latter decade marked the beginning of the Ten- Year War between Bo and Woody. After Hayes left the scene following the 1978 campaign, the teams remained on relatively equal footing for the next decade. Then came a 10-2-1 run against OSU coach John Cooper, a Michigan rampage that got him fired. But all of that evaporated when the Buck- eyes brought in ultimately disgraced head coach Jim Tressel, whose (NCAA sanctioned) squads started the streak of U-M misery featuring two Michigan wins in 19 contests prior to last fall. The Wolverines are ready to see the pendulum swing back, at least to equal footing. Whether or not they can pull that off remains to be seen. — John Borton Michigan holds a 59-52-6 series lead against the Buckeyes, including a 45-7 win in the 1943 contest. PHOTO COURTESY BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY THE RIVALRY THROUGH THE DECADES U-M OSU Years Wins Wins Ties 1897-1899 1 0 0 1900-09 9 0 1 1910-19 3 1 1 1920-29 6 4 0 1930-39 5 5 0 1940-49 6 2 2 1950-59 5 5 0 1960-69 3 7 0 1970-79 4 5 1 1980-89 6 4 0 1990-99 7 2 1 2000-09 2 8 0 2010-19 1 9 0 2020-21 1 0 0 Totals 59 52 6 THE WOLVERINE 2022 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 29 not? That's the question posed to the afore- mentioned former Wolverines, along with another whose son played a massive role in the contest. Senior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson logged three sacks against OSU star quar- terback C.J. Stroud. His dad — former U-M All-American and captain defensive lineman Dr. Chris Hutchinson — loved every minute. The elder Hutchinson insisted the win marked the fulfillment of the change vowed all along by his son and the rest of the crew. "Like people said, from spring ball on, something was different about this team," Hutchinson said. "I think everybody was re- luctant to be more specific about it, because they had just come off the COVID year, and they stunk so badly. "Aidan was limited in spring ball, but he still kept saying, 'I've never been around a