November 19 - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Michigan Recap

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. It’s my weekly critique of The Ohio State University football performance.

November 18th. It was a date circled on many people’s calendars.

Was it for the wedding of Tom Cruise and what’s her name? Talk about someone that needs an intervention.

Was it because Martha Stewart was in Cincinnati to promote her new book, "Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home?" This book retails for $45.00. A book that costs that much better have some stock tips.

For everyone else, November 18th was the biggest game in the history of the biggest rivalry. 11-0 OSU versus 11-0 michigan.

I decided to take in the entire experience and traveled to Columbus with two buddies the night before THE GAME.

We decided to go see the pro-Buckeye, punk rock band, The Dead Schembechlers. I blogged about the band on November 10.
Ironic for some, but tragic for many, Bo Schembechler had died earlier that day. The band showed a unbelievable level of class and decided to donate proceeds from Friday night’s concert to the Schembechler family’s favorite charity. They also decided to retire their name. For those keeping time, their 15 minutes of fame have expired.

They did release the following statement from their web site:

"The band is crushed to learn of the death of Bo Schembechler. We named this band after Coach Schembechler to honor him as the face of Wolverine football. We have never wished ill will upon him in any way and have always wished him the best. When we learned that Bo had seen our web site and was amused by it we were delighted. We were simply delighted. He said to those with him as he read it, "See, I still matter in Columbus!" That may have been the greatest understatement in football history. We believe that he took the band's name as the compliment that it was meant as and that he was flattered by it. We wish to extend our deepest and most heartfelt sympathies to his family. We are truly sorry for their loss"

The concert itself was festive and exiting. It was more of a pep rally. The band played their cults favorites, “Bomb Ann Arbor Now” and “Chad Heine is a Joke.” Both can be seen on Youtube.

On game day, the mass of people was unbelievable. In my 25+ years of attending Ohio State football games, I could not remember seeing more people. The crush of fans made movement almost impossible. It didn’t subside during or after the game. There may have been 105K people inside The Shoe, but thee was just as many outside the stadium.

An old friend and roommate from California flew in for the game. Now that George has been located, he will be the subject of this week’s Where Are They Now? Wednesday.

I won’t detail the actual Good, Bad, and Ugly from the game as I have done for the previous 11 weeks. Everyone saw The Game, and everyone has their own opinion.

I will say that the officiating was somewhat suspect in two controversial calls that kept michigan drives alive. The first was a call that I’ve never heard of about engaging the long snapper during a punt. It may be a rule, but the big ugly center from michigan looked like he fell over on his own. The second travesty was a pass defense call against OSU on a fourth and long play late in the fourth quarter.

Ironically, LLLLLoyd Carr, (an “L” for each loss to Coach Tressel), commented on the officials. He did not thank them but decided to criticize them when they assessed a late hit penalty against michigan that was so obvious that even Brent Musburger agreed. Speaking of Brent, he is such a bad announcer, that someone has created a Brent Musburger drinking game. I haven’t played it, but it may make him more tolerable by the time the fourth quarter comes around.

Now that we can all exhale and recover from the game, it’s sit back and wait time to determine whom OSU will play in the BCS National Championship Game on January 8, 2007.

I'm glad the students decided to behave like they had been there before and didn't riot and set fires after the victory like they did in 2002. A piece of Ohio State field turf did somehow make its way to the fourth floor of the Holiday Inn.

Many people think michigan may get a re-match. I think the bad calls and three OSU turnovers kept OSU from being a three-touchdown winner. I’m not a fan of sequels. They are never as good as the original, think Caddy Shack 2 or O.J. Simpson’s 2nd marriage.

Other Championship Game suspects include Florida, Arkansas, USC, and Notre Dame. All of these match-ups have good story lines except for the Razorbacks.

When Ohio State wins the Championship Game, they will become the only 2-time champion since the BCS was created in 1998. Other past winners were:

1998 – Tennessee
1999 – Florida State
2000 – Oklahoma
2001 – Miami
2002 – THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
2003 – LSU
2004 – USC
2005 - Texas

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.

GO BUCKS.