J.T. Barrett remembers the moment in his life where he understood just how big the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry sits in the scheme of not only the midwest but all of college football.
“My first year, I redshirting and I went to the game. It was the whole brawl with my classmate Dontre [Wilson],” Barrett said on Monday. “I was like, 'these people are angry.'”
Wilson, like Barrett, is from Texas, a handful of states away from the two rivals. Seeing his classmate get ejected for the 2013 Ohio State-Michigan game for fighting served as enough fodder for the quarterback to fully understand the gravity of his situation. Growing up in either Ohio or Michigan ingrains the hatred and dismay for the other college football power at a young age.
“I didn't say like, but there's a mutual respect.”– Urban Meyer on Michigan
But the annual crusade on the football field at the end of November between the two storied programs comes with a form of admiration too—even if it is only in the slightest.
“In the 70s, The Ten Year War, I remember that,” Urban Meyer said on Monday. “This is why I think it's the greatest rivalry in all of sport. You're darn right it was tough, but I know very well that there are two coaches who never respected each other more, and that's the head coach of our rival, Bo Schembechler, because I talked to him about it. I had great conversations with Coach Schembechler.
“And Woody Hayes, unfortunately, I never had those great conversations. I met him a few times. He was here in '86, and we lost him, and I never—I look back, and I wish I would have been able to sit down and talk to him about it.
“But I think that's the standard to what rivalries are all about,” Meyer continued, “and, yes, that's what I remember. They go so frickin' hard against it, but there is a mutual respect.”
Hayes and Schembechler locked horns from 1969-78 in the aforementioned Ten Year War, with the Buckeyes coming out on top four times, the Wolverines five and the teams playing to a tie in 1973. Meyer was in high school and college during those contests but fell in love with the Buckeyes early as a kid from Northeast Ohio.
He respects what each man fought and stood for as he watched, a reason he offered terse and short responses to reporters on Monday. Meyer knows there is only so much time between now and kickoff at noon on Saturday to get his guys ready.
This is the one you cannot afford to lose as the head coach of either Ohio State or Michigan. Meyer said he anticipates and appreciates rivalries "probably more than most" people. It is because of the history.
“I didn't say like, but there's a mutual respect,” Meyer said. “And I learned it from those two—two of the greatest coaches of all time.”
Meyer's message resonates with his players, whether it be someone like Barrett who is not from Ohio or a Cleveland kid like Chris Worley.
“If you were to sit there and say on either side that you didn’t have respect for the other side, honestly you would be lying,” Worley said. “Because if you really cared about this rivalry, you would respect your opponent. I have a tremendous amount of respect for them, but at the end of the day, I still don’t like them.”
Saturday's matchup holds more weight than it has in recent years. The Buckeyes are ranked No. 2, the Wolverines No. 3. Should Michigan win, they would get a chance to play for a Big Ten Championship the following weekend in Indianapolis. Ohio State needs a win and a Penn State loss to do the same but looks to be in solid position for the College Football Playoff with a victory against the Wolverines.
It is Meyer's second matchup against presumed Michigan savior and former quarterback Jim Harbaugh. Ohio State waxed the Wolverines 42-13 in Ann Arbor last season. That win allowed Meyer and his team to salvage something from its season despite a loss to Michigan State a week earlier dashing their national title hopes.
The stakes aren't always this high. But the respect and hate does not waver either way.
“It's huge. And every single year you make part of that history,” Billy Price said. “You change part of that history. Win-loss, who does what, what players are playing and every year—it's a huge statement game for us.”
Only this year, the winner gets a shot at a championship. The loser will not.
The Game is never short on storylines, anticipation or respect. But once the ball is snapped, all that comes to an end.
“It's the toughest, most physical rivalry that I've ever seen played,” Price said. “Blue-collared people going against one another.”
“You respect your opponent always and understand that they're a good football team,” Barrett said. “Yeah, we don't like each other but there is still respect for the game and respect for the opponent.”
For Meyer, it is another chance to pay homage to two legendary coaches—even if he only really cared for one of them.
“They handled themselves with incredible class, toughness, demanded of their players, and you got to see that every time those two teams played,” Meyer said.
“It's always big.”
