Ohio State football is just around the corner. But, remember 2020? COVID-19 was running rampant through the world’s population, all while being ignored and mocked by folks who sat at the back of science class whining, “When are we going to use this!?” In college football, the impact was felt. While leagues like the SEC, Big 12, ACC (plus Notre Dame), Sun Belt, American, and Conference USA decided to just go ahead and play, the Big Ten, Pac-12, MAC, and Mountain West decided to delay the season.
Then, there were protests, so the dissenting conferences eventually caved and played. The Big Ten, MAC, Pac-12, and Mountain West played schedules of just conference foes.
In August, five days before all of the cancellations began, Ohio State and the rest of the Big Ten started to prepare as normal. During a coaches conference call of Big Ten coaches, embattled then-Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh interrupted Ryan Day. The interruption was to accuse the Buckeyes of impermissible on-field instruction. Oddly enough, only Harbaugh has been found guilty of any wrongdoing, ranging from “just a hamburger” to an elaborate sign-stealing operation kicking off the following year, but we digress.
Peeved by the interruption, Day told Harbaugh to “worry about your team, and I’ll worry about mine.” Then, in a team meeting following the call, Day told the coaches and players that Michigan should hope for a mercy rule because the Buckeyes were “going to hang 100 on them.”
The Game was cancelled due to a “COVID-19 outbreak in the Michigan program.” The 2-4 Wolverines were so broken up about the cancellation that they held a full team practice anyway. Ohio State went 5-0 in the regular season, won the Big Ten Championship, and thrashed Clemson in the CFP before falling to Alabama in the national championship.
Ohio State Football: Revisiting The ‘Gonna Hang 100’ Comments
That season, Ohio State very well could have hung 100 on Michigan. The Justin Fields-led offense featured Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, and a late-emerging Trey Sermon and was one of the best offenses in the country. Defensively, the Buckeyes weren’t quite as good as they are today, but it would have been more than enough for Michigan.
The Game would have been the first December game at Ohio Stadium. Of course, when the Buckeyes hosted Tennessee for the 2024 CFP, that game became the first. Ohio State was coming off a dominant 52-12 beatdown of Michigan State. Michigan, meanwhile, had to cancel its matchup with Maryland the week before.
The 2020 season was forgettable for Michigan for a number of reasons. It lost to Michigan State, Indiana (for the first time since 1987), Wisconsin, and Penn State. Only Indiana finished the regular season with a winning record out of that group.
Harbaugh was already on thin ice at that point. He was 0-5 against Ohio State, staring at 0-6. If the Wolverines ended up getting beaten down, finishing the year 2-5, would Harbaugh have survived the offseason?
Either way, The Game was canceled, Connor Stalions took on a bigger role, and the rest is history*.
Six Years Later
Day promised to hang 100 on Michigan in 2020. However, it took the Buckeyes until Julian Sayin hit Brandon Inniss for a touchdown with 16 seconds until half in the 2025 edition of the game to finally cross over that mark.
Looking back, scoring 27, 23, and 24 in the following years didn’t help. Did allegedly knowing the offense’s plays factor into holding the Buckeyes to their near-season lows? The world may never know.
Since falling to Alabama, the Buckeyes’ next five seasons ended in a Rose Bowl win, a CFP Peach Bowl loss, a Cotton Bowl loss, a national championship, and a CFP Cotton Bowl loss. For plenty of programs, this is a banner stretch. The rub? Ohio State has no Big Ten titles during that time.
In that same span, Michigan lost in the CFP Orange Bowl, lost in the CFP Fiesta Bowl, won a national title, lost a ReliaQuest Bowl, and lost the Citrus Bowl. Additionally, Harbaugh fled to the NFL, becoming the first head coach to not return to his title-winning team in over a generation (Tom Osborne, 1997). After poaching most of the staff, Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator, Sherrone Moore, took over. The on-field performances were not great. The off-the-field stuff was some of the most scandalous and egregious in the history of The Game.
The State of the Programs
The 2026 Buckeyes look to be just as strong as any despite losing 11 players to the NFL Draft, plus what feels like 100 to the transfer portal. Sayin is returning as a Heisman Trophy finalist, and Jeremiah Smith is widely considered to be the most talented player in all of college football (again). Reloading the defense will be the challenge, but Matt Patricia has been up to the challenge.
On the other side, Michigan fired Moore amid his legal battles and hired one of the most respected coaches in the game. Of all of the coaches the Wolverines could have hired to put out the Harbaugh-Moore fires, Kyle Whittingham was just the firefighter to do the job. After taking over Utah as Urban Meyer’s hand-picked successor, Whittingham led Utah to a 177-88 record, and 11-6 bowl record (2-2 in BCS/NY6 Bowls). His 2008 season ended with a 13-0 mark and a Sugar Bowl win over Alabama.
Under his watch, Utah went from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 to the Big 12. In reality, the Utes are where they are because of Whittingham. If he did all of that with Utah’s resources, what will he be able to do with Michigan’s?
He’s taking over a roster that is much weaker on paper, but Whittingham has been able to do more with less for his entire career. Needless to say, The Game is in good hands between Day and Whittingham.
From an Ohio State perspective, here’s to hoping Whittingham has as much success against the Buckeyes as Brady Hoke, Rich Rodriguez, and Harbaugh (pre-Stalions) had.
Main Image: © Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images
