Michigan football should probably avoid the chest pounding on Twitter.
Tuesday brought the latest gem from Michigan's social department, highlighting a metric that was, as expected, immediately clowned on by college football fans and writers across our great nation.
— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) July 28, 2020
Honestly, they shouldn't stop tweeting – it's certainly fine and appropriate to find positive nuggets to help advertise the program. But that doesn't mean we can't have some fun when they bring us stuff like Tuesday's gloss, or this one, or this one which lists nine accomplishments by Jim Harbaugh, hardly any having anything to do with his current run as the school's head coach.
Oh, and this one touts the resume of a certain offensive line coach, with the truly impressive blurbs occurring while he was at Ohio State.
In the spirit of Michigan's reach for meaningful metrics in an effort to hype the program, here are five remarkable metrics accomplished by Ohio State since Urban Meyer's arrival back in 2012.
99 TOTAL WINS IN EIGHT SEASONS
Falling one win short of 100 across the last eight years seems decent. Let me get my calculator.. yep, that's 12.4 wins per season.
In fact, the low point of the eight year run is the 2016 season in which Ohio State went 11-2 and earned a playoff bid. They did get housed by Clemson but winning 11 games, losing one game by three points, beating Michigan in double-overtime and finishing No. 6 in the polls sounds like a basement most programs would sign up for.
Ohio State won at least 12 games in each of the other seven seasons, with 13 in both 2018 and 2019, and 14 victories during the 2014 national championship season.
If you're curious, Alabama has 102 wins and Clemson 101 over the same eight-year span. Michigan? The Wolverines clock in at 67 victories, or 32 less than Ohio State.
THREE HOME LOSSES IN EIGHT SEASONS
Of Ohio State's 10 total losses over the last eight years, just three came in Ohio Stadium.
Offset by 54 home wins, the three losses weren't fun but it's hard to argue with a .947 winning percentage in the Shoe.
The first loss, while painful at the time, ended up as meaningless as any defeat in school history.
Two games into a 2014 season assumed derailed by Braxton Miller's season-ending shoulder injury in fall camp, J.T. Barrett and the Ohio State offensive line were overwhelmed by Virginia Tech's Cover 0 defense in a 35-21 stunner. Thirteen games later however, Ohio State celebrated its first national title since 2002.
A 17-14 loss to Michigan State was easily the most impactful of the three defeats as it ended Ohio State's shot at back-to-back national championships in 2015. The fact it came against a backup quarterback in a game that saw Ezekiel Elliott log just 12 carries made it sting even more.
The final home loss over the last eight years came at the hands of Baker Mayfield in Oklahoma's 31-16 decision over the Buckeyes in game two of the 2017 season. Mayfield carved up Ohio State's defense with 386 yards and three scores before attempting to plant the OU flag at midfield in a tasteful post game celebration.
The loss eventually didn't mean much considering Ohio State got blasted in Iowa City two months later, ending any shot at a college football playoff berth.
54 home wins. Three home losses. Seems good.
A PERFECT 8-0 AGAINST MICHIGAN
Peeling off eight straight wins against Michigan honestly doesn't even feel that impressive anymore since fans have become so accustomed to resting easy by around halftime of The Game for much of the last 19 years.
But that doesn't mean we aren't going to celebrate the hell out of it.
Over the last eight seasons, Ohio State entered The Game ranked no worse than No. 10 each time, including four rankings inside the Top-5.
Michigan entered the contest unranked three times with another three ranked between No. 10 and No. 20. Twice the Wolverines were in the Top-5.
Ohio State's offense has simply overpowered typically vaunted Michigan defenses over the span, averaging 41.4 points per game. In fact, the Buckeyes tallied at least 40 points in five of the eight matchups including 56 points last year and 62 in 2018.
During that same span, Michigan scored over 40 points once against the Buckeyes, falling 42-41 in Ann Arbor back in 2013.
EIGHT BUCKEYES PLACE IN TOP-10 OF HEISMAN VOTING
Recruiting elite talent is the cornerstone of any true football powerhouse and Ohio State has certainly enjoyed success in attracting game changing players.
Dating back to the 2012 season, Ohio State saw players appear in the Top-10 of the Heisman Trophy voting eight different times.
The 2019 season serves as the gold standard with Justin Fields (3), Chase Young (4) and J.K. Dobbins (6) all placing in the Top-10.
Dwayne Haskins placed third in 2018, Ezekiel Elliott received the eighth-most votes in 2015 and J.T. Barrett ranked fifth in 2014. Before that, Braxton Miller ranked in the Top-10 in back-to-back seasons, slotting fifth in 2012 and ninth in 2013.
While Ohio State placed guys in the Top-10 eight different times, Jabrill Peppers was the lone Michigan player to appear in the voting.
Over the eight year span, Alabama placed seven guys in the Top-10, Oklahoma had six and Clemson four.
SCORING OFFENSE RANKS IN TOP-10 IN FIVE OF EIGHT SEASONS
In the spirit of having a final laugh at Michigan's tweet celebrating the whole fewest tackles thing, let's look at Ohio State's scoring offense in comparison to that of the Wolverines.
The Buckeyes posted a scoring offense among the nation's ten best in five of the last eight years, scoring at least 60 touchdowns each season.
Meanwhile, Michigan didn't register even one scoring offense in the Top-10 and enjoyed only one season with at least 60 touchdowns.
The most futile offense of Ohio State's eight-year run scored 35.7 points per game in 2015, a mark that would serve as Michigan's second-best output behind 2016's 40.3 points per outing.
Thinking about the whole state of Michigan, the 2014 season saw Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Michigan State all average more points per game than the Wolverines.
In 2017, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan and Western Michigan turned the directional-Michigan trifecta in accomplishing the feat.
