Game of the Century of the Year. (It had looked like Alabama-LSU would take that mantle. It
did not live up to it.) Both were in varying degrees of trouble against lesser
teams in Week 12
http://www.authenticsatlantafalcons.com/cheap-desmond-trufant-jersey , with Ohio State needing so much luck to beat Maryland in overtime and Michigan
messing around for a while before pulling away from Indiana. But both won, and
this game’s as big as ever. Like every Michigan-Ohio State meeting, this one has
enough subtext to fill a book. The winner wins the Big Ten East (as is typical)
and will be heavily favored in the conference title game (ditto), where a
Playoff berth will be within reach (same). It’s a massive even without its many
interpersonal subplots, like the Wolverines visiting Columbus for the first time
since The Spot and the first time since Urban Meyer maybe taunted Jim Harbaugh
via milk. Everyone involved has a great opportunity. But Michigan has lots of
opportunities. A win at the Horseshoe would extinguish a lot of popular
narratives about Jim Harbaugh’s program, or at least go a long way toward it.
Narrative: Michigan (and Harbaugh) can’t beat Ohio StateI feel like I’m pushing
the contextual limits of the word “narrative” here, because it’s often used to
describe conventional wisdom the user doesn’t think is grounded in reality.
Well, this one is absolutely grounded in reality. Michigan’s lost 13 of 14 in
this series, which has come to resemble a “rivalry” between a grizzly bear and a
salmon. Ohio State’s six wins in a row cover Harbaugh’s three-plus-year tenure.
The narrative here is true: Ohio State has claimed total and complete ownership
of Michigan over the years. One game wouldn’t erase all that history, but it
would remove the word “can’t” from the equation for this era of Michigan
football. Narrative: Michigan can’t win big games on the road. This one took a
bit of a hit earlier this year. Michigan had lost 17 road games in a row against
ranked teams, a run that started at Troy Smith’s Ohio State in 2006 and ran
until a win at Michigan State a few weeks ago. Beating MSU, despite a lot of
stars seeming to align for a stupid Spartan upset, was a big deal. That’s not
the same as winning a game like this one
Robert Alford Jersey , though. Michigan State might well not even finish the season ranked. No one ever knows if the Spartans are great or terrible,
probably least of all the Spartans themselves. This would be the road win to
fully put to bed any notion that Harbaugh’s Wolverines can’t come through in
tough environments. Narrative: Harbaugh can’t even finish in the top two in his
division.Michigan’s Big Ten East finishes under Harbaugh so far: third, third,
and fourth, just a small notch above the division’s Indianas and Marylands. This
is mainly a funny thing to point out on the internet, because it’s not like
finishing in second instead of third would do anything at all to placate
Michigan fans. Good news: This one gets dealt with win or lose. Michigan can’t
finish worse than second in the East. The bad news: No Michigan fans will think
that’s a cool consolation. Narrative: Harbaugh’s just not a big-game coach,
period. It’s persisted in some corners, because Harbaugh’s never won The Game at
Michigan and didn’t win The Big Game for the 49ers. You can say he made it to a
Super Bowl, and your anti-Harbaugh friend will tell you he lost that Super Bowl
to his brother and should’ve told Alex Smith not to try Richard Sherman in the
end zone that one time in Seattle. Only four active FBS head coaches have ever
won a national title, so saddling anyone who hasn’t as a big-game loser isn’t
fair. Harbaugh’s Stanford also beat the snot out of Virginia Tech in the Orange
Bowl at the end of the 2010 season, and that was reasonably big. But this would
be Harbaugh’s biggest win as a college coach, and arguably his biggest win at
any level, depending on your view of his NFC Championship win over the Falcons
in 2012. Narrative: Harbaugh can’t win rivalry games.This tag has little to
support it beyond three losses to Ohio State. He’s had his teams plenty
competitive against Michigan State and Penn State and would’ve beaten OSU in
2016 if officials had ruled J.T. Barrett down a centimeter short of where they
did on a fourth down.Harbaugh’s Stanford beat USC three out of four
times
Authentic Matt Bosher Jersey , including making Pete Carroll furious during one of the biggest upsets ever. While he was in Palo Alto, Harbaugh also beat
Notre Dame and Cal two times apiece out of four. He did lose to Carroll’s
Seahawks in the Sherman/Michael Crabtree game in January 2014, and maybe that’s
stuck a bit, because it’s one of the most remembered NFL games of this decade.
These sentiments have attached themselves to Harbaugh to varying degrees, with
varying levels of fairness. This is his chance to blow away all of them. Or they
could persist for another year, and maybe for eternity. Because if the
Wolverines can’t beat this drab-looking Buckeyes team, when can Michigan win?
We’ll see. As new CFP No. 3 Notre Dame prepares to host Florida State, starting
quarterback Ian Book will miss the game due to midsection injuries.Book took
over for incumbent starter Brandon Wimbush after Week 3, sparking some
significant overall improvement by the Irish. Going by S&P+’s offensive
percentile performance rating, the Irish had two poor showings in their first
three games of the year, but only one (Pitt) in the six Book has started.The
Irish would go back to Wimbush against the Seminoles, against whom they’re
favored by 18 and have been picked to cover. Wimbush isn’t a bad player and made
some great plays in 2017, but this is obviously a blow for the Irish.As Bill
Connelly writes:There are some significant differences in comparing Book to
Wimbush. For one
Youth Matt Bryant Jersey , accuracy. While completion percentage is not a perfect barometer of accuracy, Book literally leads the nation in completion
percentage against FBS teams at 74.5 percent. Wimbush, on the other hand, is at
55.3 percent, which ranks 93rd nationally according to cfbstats.com. Book’s
Marginal efficiency is 13.3 percent, while Wimbush’s is just 3.0. And despite
being a little less athletic than Wimbush, Book is sacked about half as often
(3.8 percent to 7.3). As a runner, the two QBs have been roughly even. Book has
a higher yards/carry number at 4.8 to 4.1, but Wimbush has a slightly better
marginal efficiency rate at -3.5 to -3.7. Still, it’s just FSU, a team unlikely
to make a bowl and unlikely to score many points on Notre Dame. The Irish are
still favored by 16 points.
