Every game does matter, which is why I think a Div. IA playoff of any kind would be an abomination as vile as the designated hitter rule.
But the Michigan game matters much more. You had to sit through the pain of the Coach Cooper years. Outstanding teams, blasting everyone. Nine, ten, eleven wins....but then losses to those snotty socialists from up north.
Woody got it right. No one who was so beloved ever carried such a burning hatred. They always talk about his boring offense, and against the traitor Schembechler he did play it very close to the vest. But twice, before Schembechler, he rang up 50 points in The Game. One was the legendary 1968 game where the Buckeyes led 42-14 in the last minute of the fourth quarter. The Bucks scored to make it 48-14. Woody went for a two-point conversion and made it, for 50 points. When asked why he would go for two in the last minute of the game he said it was because he could not go for three. He also ran up 50 in 1961. He ran up the score in both of those games, because he remembered Michigan pouring it on for 58 in a game right after World War II. Woody knew history.
A couple of years ago, I heard a story about Lllllloyd Carr. In a game with seconds left, Michigan has the ball on the OSU 1-yard line, 4th down, trailing by 5. Coach Carr calls timeout, looks to heaven and prays, "I have always been a God-fearing man, Lord, and I've never before asked your help. But just this one time, Lord, give me a sign, tell me what to do." To his amazement, he hears the voice of God thundering down from the clouds, "Toss sweep right." He's incredulous, but overjoyed, and sends in the play called by God. The ball is snapped, the toss is made, and the Buckeye outside linebacker knifes past his blocker and nails the tailback for a three yard loss as time runs out. Carr is crushed. He looks to the sky once more and says "Lord, why did you give me that play? They killed it!" Again he hears God's voice, saying "I don't know... Woody, why did we call that play?"
There is no prettier picture in sports than Michigan fans in Ann Arbor during the last seconds of a Buckeye victory.
