Throw a punch against Michigan Saturday? Pack your things, Urban Meyer says.
After last year’s edition of The Game came to blows during an on-field melee less than a minute into the second quarter, Ohio State’s head coach is serious when it comes to the Buckeyes being on their best behavior.
“He said he wants the game to be very intense, but if anybody throws any punches this year we’re just dismissed,” senior linebacker Curtis Grant said Monday. “He pretty much put it out there yesterday, so there’s no telling what will happen if you get into a fight this year.”
For their roles in the brawl last season in Ann Arbor, starters Dontre Wilson and Marcus Hall were ejected. The scene went from chaotic to embarrassing when Hall threw his helmet on the sideline, kicked the team's bench, and flipped off all of Michigan Stadium on his way back to the locker room.
The Buckeyes ultimately won the contest, 42-41, but the fight left them without two of their best players and cast a shadow over an otherwise thrilling and classic game.
“I had a talk with our team about that,” Meyer said. “And absolutely no case for that. Intensity, absolutely. Certain mentality we need to take to this field, but that's not acceptable.”
As senior defensive lineman Michael Bennett put it, "It's a fake tough guy thing.”
But for game treated like warfare, why are we so appalled and stunned when these two teams fight? It's bound to happen.
“When (last year’s fight) happened I was like, ‘What do you expect?’ We watched this highlight video of Ohio State-Team Up North fights the past week for this ‘It’s Time for War’ show we're playing the whole time,” Bennett said. “Kids want to fight. It didn't surprise me."
To drive home the point in a rivalry that means so much more than football to millions of people, Meyer plucks carefully at the strings that make this one of the most vicious contests in college football.
Perhaps most notably, he plays “It’s Time for War" by LL Cool J on an endless loop in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center to strike an exceptionally-aggressive tone for a week that’s as aggressive as any in Columbus.
“It's time for war. Name (of the song) says it all. That's basically what it is to us,” junior linebacker Joshua Perry said. “Biggest game of the year, no matter what. So you just gotta get that mentality going.”
“You have to go in there and it’s a war,” redshirt sophomore safety Tyvis Powell said. “It’s basically a war.”
“It’s gonna be a war,” senior tight end Jeff Heuerman said, “no matter what the records are.”
“It’s always a war, no matter what the records are, no matter where it’s at, it’s a battle and they just want us to be prepared for it,” senior tackle Darryl Baldwin said.
But there’s a careful line to be walked.
“You toe that line every game you play if you're playing with intensity, anger or aggression. It's a rough sport. Guys are going to be jawing back and forth. You have to know what the limits are. You have to know what's worth doing and what's not worth doing,” Bennett said.
“Sometimes you can get away with doing stuff between the whistles and guys go for it. When you start jawing at someone and you throw a punch, it's not well thought out. You know you're going to get kicked out of the game and miss the next one.”
When Meyer says there’s no room for fighting in football, he’s right. And it's not like he's attempting to coax his players into a skirmish either. Treating Michigan Week like warfare is to gain an edge on the field.
But it’s not like booming the lyrics “It’s time for war / It’s time for war / It’s time for war / It’s time for war” does much to temper the emotions of college kids playing a sport that’s dripping with testosterone and already cloaked in ultra-macho excess.
And The Game is as hostile as it gets.
