Finally! Michigan is on top of the world after beating Ohio State

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months, of some sharks three years, and of one particular genus of Wolverine, seven seasons. That’s how long it took for Jim Harbaugh to produce the brand of football that Michigan expected to see when it hired him to resuscitate a program wallowing in mediocrity.

And, oh, what a glorious birth it was.

“It felt like the beginning,” Harbaugh said Saturday, after his No. 5 Wolverines ended an eight-game losing streak to archrival No. 2 Ohio State, winning 42-27 in a snow globe of a Big House. The Wolverines will play Iowa next Saturday in the Big Ten Championship Game.

Michigan won with the brand of physical dominance that Harbaugh had been expected to deliver when he arrived at his alma mater for the 2015 season. Harbaugh had transformed woebegone Stanford into bullies, echoing the run-first style that his college coach and mentor, Bo Schembechler, taught at Michigan for 21 seasons. But he couldn’t do the same at Michigan, not until Saturday, not until his team controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball against a team that has alternated between torturing them and humiliating them for nearly two decades. The Buckeyes had won 15 of the past 16 games in this historic rivalry, including routs of 56-27 and 62-39 in their past two meetings (no game last season and thank you, pandemic).

After going 2-4 in the chaos of 2020, Harbaugh took a pay cut, revamped his staff, and reemphasized the importance of this most famous of college football rivalries. Signs asked the Wolverines, “What have you done today to beat Ohio State?”

Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara, who overcame a red-zone interception in the first quarter to play virtually flawlessly the rest of the way, said, “We’ve been playing these dudes really every day since January.”

Harbaugh has won at Michigan, but he didn’t win the right games. He hadn’t beaten Ohio State in five tries, and he has never won a Big Ten Championship Game, mainly because Michigan hasn’t played in one since the league began holding them in 2011.

The victory Saturday solves a mystery that has bedeviled Wolverine fans for years. Here’s the answer: To get from Ann Arbor to Indianapolis, you go west on U.S. 24, then south on I-69.

Michigan senior Hassan Haskins rushed for 169 yards and a school-record-tying five touchdowns, keying an offense that gained 487 yards on only 61 snaps. His backfield mate, sophomore Blake Corum, added 87 yards on only five carries.

Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, the Lombardi Award finalist, had three sacks, raising his season total to 13, two more than his father, Chris had in 1992 and one more than any Wolverine ever.

“It’s crazy. I can’t really put it into words,” said Hutchinson, who is also a finalist for the Campbell Trophy, the “Academic Heisman.” “I just wanted to beat my dad. I went a little farther.”

Michigan sacked C.J. Stroud four times and had four other tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Ohio State didn’t have a single tackle for loss, a statistic that reveals the one-sidedness of the game. The Wolverines didn’t punt in the second half, when Haskins scored touchdowns on four of five possessions. That fifth one? They took a knee twice, then watched as a large portion of the 111,156 fans in Michigan Stadium cascaded onto the field.

Fifth-year safety Brad Hawkins, who played in his 54^th game at Michigan (thank you, pandemic) on Saturday, said he cried as the realization of the victory overwhelmed him. “I’m blessed,” Hawkins said. “I’m just speechless, man. It’s been a long ride.”

Predictions of Michigan’s dominance were few and far between. It turns out the Buckeyes made an honest mistake: They misread the schedule, peaking last week, against Michigan State.

Michigan set the tone early, driving 75 yards for a touchdown, then holding Ohio State to a three-and-out, the first time that has happened to the Buckeyes on their opening drive this season. The visitors rallied to take a 10-7 early in the second quarter that lasted only as long as it took the Wolverines to drive 82 yards in 13 plays, Haskins leaping over the top for the last yard.

Ohio State closed the deficit to 14-13 at halftime, but even that seemed ominous, given that the Buckeyes had 34 touchdowns and only 12 field goals in the red zone this season, and in the first half those numbers were one and two, respectively.

Ohio State won halftime, given that The Best Damn Band in the Land performed a double Script Ohio, complete with 28 sousaphones, but once the game began again, the Wolverines reasserted control.

Michigan reprised the beginning of the game, in reverse order. The Wolverines held the Buckeyes to a three-and-out, then unleashed Corum, whose play has been limited without explanation, save for the limp he displayed after his 55-yard run down the right hash mark to Ohio State’s 13. Haskins scored again on the next play, and on the next three possessions, too.

The last touchdown drive punctuated how much Michigan dominated this game. From the Wolverines’ 37, Haskins ran the ball five times, gaining 15, 6, 11, 27 and 4 yards, going into the end zone, knees high. The Buckeyes’ defense didn’t seem to want any part of him.

That touchdown, with 2:17 to play, kicked off a party. As streams of scarlet began to trickle down the aisles of the Big House, no one in maize and blue moved. Not until the final gun, anyway, when they clambered over the low wall and onto the hallowed playing surface.

As of early Saturday night, the trolling website www.howmanydayssincemichiganbeatohiostatecom remained at 3654. That goes back a long time.

For the first time since 2012, Ohio State players will not be awarded a gold charm of football pants, the traditional prize that, since the 1930s, has been given to Buckeyes who beat their archrival. Since then, the price of gold has risen 40 percent, to $1,800 per ounce. That’s not money that the Buckeyes care to save.