Throughout the history of Big Ten football, the one rivalry that has trumped all others in terms of its bitterness and annual importance on the gridiron has tended to be Ohio State-Michigan. Though it’s always the case in terms of the former, the latter has certainly gone missing in recent years. The Buckeyes recent success has not been met with similar results on the part of the Wolverines although that appears to be changing with the arrival of Jim Harbaugh.
Ohio State-Michigan State: Big Ten Football’s Current Standard Bearers
It can be argued rather convincingly that the best football in that state up north hasn’t had a Maize and Blue tone to it for quite some time now. Instead, it can be found a little less than 70 miles to the northwest in East Lansing. The Green and White of Michigan State are currently in the midst of a sustained span of success the likes of which has rarely been achieved in the program’s history.
Much of that success has been due in large part to the phenomenal job head coach Mark Dantonio has done in building the Spartan program since his arrival in 2007. Between then and 1965, MSU had just two ten-win seasons. They’ve had four in the previous five, have won two Big Ten titles in that time frame and have also finished ranked in the top five of the final AP poll the past two seasons.
In 2015, the Spartans have gotten it done behind a fearsome defensive front that includes edge rusher Shilique Calhoun. They’ve also have benefited from phenomenal quarterback play out of Connor Cook who looks to be one of the first signal callers off the board in next year’s NFL Draft. OSU head coach Urban Meyer stressed this week that in analyzing his team’s game film as well as MSU’s, there can be no doubting this team’s elite level of play.
“When you watch and evaluate a team, (you look to see if) is it good enough to beat the best? And you’ve got one of the best coming in here Saturday,” Meyer told Bill Rabinowitz of the Columbus Dispatch during his weekly press conference.
Heading into Saturday afternoon’s gigantic clash with the Buckeyes, it should be abundantly clear based simply on results that these programs have established themselves as the two most elite in the Big Ten. The past two matchups between them have had conference as well as national title implications and it will be no different this weekend. It should also be noted that the Big Ten champions from the previous two seasons (MSU 2013, OSU 2014) will both be at the Horseshoe in Columbus on Saturday.
Here’s another mind-blowing statistic that really encapsulates the recent dominance these two schools have enjoyed. Since Urban Meyer’s second year as OSU head coach in 2013, the only time that either the Buckeyes or Spartans have lost to a Big Ten opponent other than each other was MSU’s shock 39-38 defeat at the hands of Nebraska on November 7th of this year. And I’m sure most of you are aware by now of the horrific officiating gaffe that made the Huskers game-winning touchdown possible.
To put that another way, in three seasons of conference play, these two schools are a combined 42-1 against the rest of the league and the one loss shouldn’t have counted. If that doesn’t exude the notion that Ohio State and Michigan State have established themselves as the cream of the crop in this conference, I’m not sure what will.
Against one another, the Buckeyes enjoy a 2-1 edge over the past three seasons with that lone loss occurring in the 2013 conference championship game. That remains the only time Meyer has dropped a game against a Big Ten team during his tenure in Columbus. With their 28-3 win over Illinois last weekend, Ohio State extended their regular season winning streak in-conference to 30 games, a feat which has never been achieved in the history of the Power Five leagues.
Not only is this weekend’s showdown an enormously important game between the third and ninth ranked teams in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings, it’s also Senior Day in Columbus. It’s a chance for the fans of the Scarlet and Gray to watch the seniors take the Ohio Stadium field one last time. And it’s a close-knit group of players that has been a part of unprecedented success during their career with the Buckeyes.
It’s not hyperbole to say that this senior class will go out as likely the most successful in program history, and that’s saying something at a place like Ohio State. Not only have they been a part of the current conference winning streak mentioned above, but they’ve also set school records in total wins (48) and also had two separate overall winning streaks of 24 and 23 games respectively, both of which have never been done in the long and distinguished history of OSU football.
Whether it’s quarterback turned wide receiver Braxton Miller, linebacker Joshua Perry, defensive tackle Adolphus Washington, or offensive linemen Jacoby Boren and Taylor Decker who have been mainstays of a unit that affectionately refers to itself as “The Slobs,” this is a group of seniors that Buckeye Nation has every reason to be proud of. Having brought a conference as well as national championship to Columbus in addition to numerous individual accolades both on the field and in the classroom, they’ve already achieved a great deal.
Nevertheless, with their final two regular season games in front of them plus much more beyond that, there’s still much to be done if they want to cement themselves as truly legendary by winning consecutive titles. It begins with a crucial clash against that program who, like Ohio State, has been the standard bearer for the Big Ten’s revival on the national stage.
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