Thursday, November 24, 2011
Associated Press
ANN ARBOR, Mich.
Michigan’s senior class showed a lot of leadership before Brady Hoke even became their coach.
With fans clamoring for college football’s winningest program to bring back Jim Harbaugh or Les Miles to campus after Rich Rodriguez was fired, Ryan Van Bergen and David Molk called a team meeting.
Rumors were running rampant that quarterback Denard Robinson was going to transfer. There were fears the team the Wolverines might fall apart — as they did after Lloyd Carr retired and Rodriguez was hired — and the players who were entering their senior year stood and spoke up.
“We need to stick together,” Van Bergen recalled telling his teammates.
They did, and now they’re being rewarded.
The 17th-ranked Wolverines (9-2, 5-2 Big Ten) will host Ohio State (6-5, 3-4) with a chance to win at least 10 games and play in a BCS bowl for the first time since 2006 — when their seniors were still in high school.
Michigan’s seniors seem to have a good shot to break a seven-game losing streak to the Buckeyes, who have enjoyed their best run in a series that dates to 1897.
Ohio State’s senior class has seen a lot, too, and lately it hasn’t been pleasant.
The Buckeyes’ seniors have caught the brunt of a tattoo-parlor scandal that forced Jim Tressel to resign, Terrelle Pryor to leave and losses on the field to mount.
After helping the storied program at least share Big Ten titles and win at least 10 games, they have a chance to be a part of the team that loses to Michigan for the first time since 2003 and finishes a regular season 6-6 with five conference losses for the first time since 1999.
Ohio State, of course, is hoping for the best at the Big House.
“It would be great to pull this off,” center Mike Brewster said. “After all the stuff that’s gone on, this is the best way to make yourself feel better.”
Interim coach Luke Fickell has been left to pick up the pieces at a program shook up by scandal and toward the end of the season, he has had to deal with the growing belief that Urban Meyer will be Ohio State’s next coach.
Fickell has his own team to worry about, but he has been impressed with how Michigan’s seniors have helped the program across the border bounce back.
“The ability to have some older guys and some seniors that have been through some tough times, have been through a lot of ups and downs, only makes you stronger in the long run,” he said. “I think that’s what you’re seeing a little bit from them, as well as momentum. Football is a game of momentum. You can get yourself on a roll and get some momentum, great things can happen and I think it’s a combination of all those.”
As Ohio State has found out, the same is true when things go south.
But when the Buckeyes go north to play their archrival, an upset would make for a sweet ending.