It's about that time.
I say this every year and I'm going to say it again this year and every other year of my life until Arby's takes me home – I have never in my entire life awoken on the morning of The Game with even a shred of belief that Michigan was going to beat the Buckeyes, and that ain't about to start today.
Call it arrogance, I call it reality.
Ohio State has won eight straight games in this rivalry and 15 out of the last 16. Five of the last six wins have been by double digits and the Buckeyes have won the past two games by an average of 26 points. The one time in recent memory that Ohio State was an underdog, the Buckeyes slapped Michigan with a cool 62-39 beatdown.
I'm not confident because I'm cocky or delusional or a homer. I'm confident because I've seen this movie many, many times before, and it almost always ends with Michigan lifeless in a dumpster. This year's going to be no different.
Ryan Day missed his chance to hang 100 last year. But it's never too late...
Word of the Day: Hate.
TODAY'S MENU. Only one game matters today, but here's this, just in case.
| Matchup | Time (ET) | TV/Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Texas Tech at #8 Baylor | 12:00pm | FS1 |
| Akron at Toledo | 12:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Army at Liberty | 12:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Florida State at Florida | 12:00pm | ESPN |
| #1 Georgia at Georgia Tech | 12:00pm | ABC |
| #2 Ohio State at #5 Michigan | 12:00pm | FOX |
| #18 Wake Forest at Boston College | 12:00pm | ESPN2 |
| Maryland at Rutgers | 12:00pm | BTN |
| Miami (Ohio) at Kent State | 12:00pm | ESPN+ |
| #24 Houston at UConn | 12:00pm | CBSSN |
| Navy at Temple | 12:00pm | ESPNU |
| Miami (FL) at Duke | 12:30pm | RSN/ESPN3 |
| Louisiana Tech at Rice | 1:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Charlotte at Old Dominion | 2:00pm | ESPN+ |
| #22 UTSA at North Texas | 2:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Texas State at Arkansas State | 2:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Troy at Georgia State | 2:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Georgia Southern at Appalachian State | 2:30pm | ESPN+ |
| FIU at Southern Miss | 3:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Hawaii at Wyoming | 3:00pm | Spectrum PPV |
| UMass at New Mexico State | 3:00pm | FloFootball / CW El Paso |
| Indiana at Purdue | 3:30pm | FS1 |
| Northwestern at Illinois | 3:30pm | BTN |
| #3 Alabama at Auburn | 3:30pm | CBS |
| WKU at Marshall | 3:30pm | CBSSN |
| Penn State at #12 Michigan State | 3:30pm | ABC |
| Oregon State at #11 Oregon | 3:30pm | ESPN |
| Virginia Tech at Virginia | 3:45pm | ACCN |
| Vanderbilt at Tennessee | 3:45pm | SECN |
| ULM at Louisiana | 4:00pm | ESPNU |
| Arizona at Arizona State | 4:00pm | P12N |
| Tulsa at SMU | 4:00pm | ESPN2 |
| #14 Wisconsin at Minnesota | 4:00pm | FOX |
| #15 Texas A&M at LSU | 7:00pm | ESPN |
| Middle Tennessee at Florida Atlantic | 7:00pm | Stadium |
| West Virginia at Kansas | 7:00pm | FS1 |
| #23 Clemson at South Carolina | 7:30pm | SECN |
| Kentucky at Louisville | 7:30pm | ESPN2 |
| #17 Pitt at Syracuse | 7:30pm | ACCN |
| #10 Oklahoma at #7 Oklahoma State | 7:30pm | ABC |
| Tulane at Memphis | 7:30pm | ESPNU |
| #6 Notre Dame at Stanford | 8:00pm | FOX |
| Nevada at Colorado State | 9:00pm | CBSSN |
| California at UCLA | 10:30pm | FS1 |
| #13 BYU at USC | 10:30pm | ESPN |
GOOD LUCK! Michigan is the latest team given the unfortunate task of doing anything at all to slow down this Ohio State passing attack. So far, it's proven nearly impossible.
Plenty of teams have built there schemes for defending against Ohio State around double-teaming Olave. Almost all of them have discovered that strategy doesn't work in 2021, because putting one defender on Olave means taking one away from Wilson or Smith-Njigba.
...
Scheming against the Olave-Wilson-Smith-Njigba triad can leave opposing defensive coordinators equally dumbfounded because of their versatility.
...
"If they wanted to pass every play and go down and score, they could," said (Purdue coach Jeff) Brohm.
My favorite part about this article is that it almost completely ignores the fact that Ohio State also has a 1,000-yard running back that easily could have been a Heisman candidate with enough touches.
So if by some completely miracle your defense is able to shut down all three receivers and the Heisman frontrunner, there's still a ground game that can shred you.
Best of luck today!
PICKS. I'm gonna be real with y'all, I've been far too concerned about this game to even look at whatever the hell is happening anywhere else in college football.
So I'm going with one pick, and one pick only:
- Ohio State -7 against Michigan.
We're going all in.
SONG OF THE DAY. "We Don't Give a Damn for the Whole State of Michigan" by The Best Damn Band in the Land.
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