By the numbers: Chasing 1,000 wins and how Michigan has fared the week before Ohio State

Coming into the 2023 season, Michigan Wolverines football was hoping the Nov. 18 game at Maryland would have a little something extra on the line. The Maize and Blue came into the year at 989 all-time wins, the most in college football history, with a chance to become the first to hit the 1,000 mark this weekend if everything on the field went according to plan.

That week has come, and the 1,000th win is there for the taking, Michigan a 19.5-point favorite over the Terrapins in College Park.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh said earlier this season that the program was already making plans for how it will commemorate the 1,000th win. Perhaps the Wolverines will give rings to the team and past players and coaches, or hold some sort of celebration.

“It’s in our wildest dreams, that’s what we hope for, that’s what we worked for was that we’d have a chance to play in our 11th game this season — chance to get that 1,000,” Harbaugh said this week. “And just really want to shout out the Green Bay Packers — most wins in NFL history, 793. Most wins in high school football — Valdosta, Georgia, 951. And Michigan Wolverines, 999. No one has won more. Nobody.

“I want to thank especially everyone who has put on the winged helmet, all those that have contributed and those that have supported their efforts.”

Michigan has quite the lead on the rest of college football programs, with 36 more than second-place Ohio State. Alabama (962), Texas (945) and Notre Dame (945) are looming behind the Buckeyes.

Michigan is one of nine NCAA teams with 900 or more victories and one of six with a winning percentage of .700 or better.

Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Percentage
Michigan	999	353	36	.733
Ohio State	963	331	53	.735
Alabama	962	336	43	.733
Texas	945	391	33	.702
Notre Dame	945	338	42	.729
Oklahoma	942	340	53	.726
Yale	935	390	55	.698
Penn State	928	408	42	.689
Nebraska	917	422	40	.680
Harvard	901	419	50	.676

How Michigan has fared a week before Ohio State

Michigan is 10-0 for the second straight season, and so is Ohio State. If U-M beats Maryland, and Ohio State tops Minnesota, it would set up the fifth-ever matchup in series history with both teams undefeated and the first time that they’d each have unblemished records in two straight seasons since they began playing in the last regular-season game in 1935. Michigan won last year’s contest, 45-23, in Columbus.

The Wolverines have to get the job done this weekend, though, and that’s where their focus is.

“Trap game?” sophomore EDGE Derrick Moore asked this week. “We definitely can’t take them lightly, because coming off the Penn State week and going into the Maryland week, we’ve got another big game. We’ve got to attack them and take them out of the game so we don’t show … [anything] that Ohio can attack on film.”

Michigan won’t soon forget being 17-point home favorites over Illinois last season and needing a game-winning field goal to win 19-17. That was a close call.

The Wolverines have a 41-11-1 record the week before playing Ohio State over the last 53 years (since 1969; the two teams did not play in 2020). Only two of the 12 non-wins in the penultimate week of the regular season are ones we’d consider falling victim to a trap — a loss in 1986 and a tie in 1992.

Michigan was undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll in 1986, before falling at home to Minnesota one week before heading down to Columbus. The Gophers went 6-6 and wouldn’t have been bowl-eligible without the win.

If Michigan were to have beaten Minnesota that week, head coach Bo Schembechler would have become U-M’s all-time winningest coach. The players had a plaque they were going to present to him after the win, but didn’t get a chance to until the following weekend.

The team’s quarterback, Harbaugh, famously guaranteed victory over Ohio State the next week and stayed true to his word with a 26-24 win for the ages, sending the Maize and Blue to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl.

In 1992, the Wolverines needed a 39-yard field goal by Pete Elezovic with 19 seconds to go, tying the game at 22-22, to avoid losing to a Fighting Illini club that posted a 6-5-1 record on the year. Michigan didn’t lose a game that season, but had three ties (17-17 to Notre Dame and 13-13 to Ohio State the next week).

Michigan’s 10 other losses the week before Ohio State since 1969 came against teams that finished with either the same or a better winning percentage than the Maize and Blue. The Wolverines have lost only once on the second-to-last weekend with Harbaugh as head coach — in 2017 at No. 5 Wisconsin, 24-10.