In a normal college football season, we would be just two weeks away from The Game between Ohio State and Michigan. This is considered the greatest rivalry in college football and is traditionally played in late November. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Big Ten's delayed start to the season, The Game will be played a few weeks later this year in mid-December.
While The Game will have a different feel in 2020 in terms of when it is played, the intensity between the two college football giants will be the same. And there could be quite a bit on the line between the Buckeyes and the Wolverines.
Through three games this season, everything is going to plan for the Scarlet and Gray. Ohio State is 3-0 with an elite offense carrying a young defense early on in the year. The Buckeyes' goals of winning a fourth straight Big Ten title and returning to the College Football Playoff, this time hoping to bring home the national championship, are all still on the table.
The same cannot be said for the Maize and Blue. After an impressive road win against Minnesota to open the season, Michigan has lost each of its last two games, falling to 1-2 to start the year. The pressure is on head coach Jim Harbaugh to get things right and quickly. One way to do that, regardless of what happens over these next four weeks, is to beat Ohio State at the end of the season, which would be Harbaugh's first win against the program's biggest rival in five tries.
Former Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer knows a thing or two about this rivalry and discussed why this year's edition of The Game, despite being strange, could still have that same Ohio State-Michigan feel.
"I used to have friends and colleagues in the business that said, 'You really believe that you can lose all games and if you won that game, you're ok?' I do believe that because you know what, that's true. And if you don't believe that, you're in trouble. Go take the job at Ohio State and say, 'You know what, I think we should win most of our games, especially that one.' Don't play that game. You better win that one.
"Now here's the thing, in the 90s, the Wolverines had a couple of times where they just ruined a perfect season for Ohio State. If I'm the Wolverines, all laser lights on that game. You're having a bad season. Your team doesn't look very good. You still have good players, you still have good coaches. Rally up, find a way somehow -- I don't know if they can, but all laser lights need to go on that one. I think this game's going to be as big as ever because Ohio State might be playing for the prize and the Wolverines could take it from them."
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Ohio State fans hope their team will extend an eight-game winning streak against Michigan, seven of those wins courtesy of Meyer, while the Wolverines know that upsetting the Buckeyes at the end of the year could, no matter the team's final record, change the way the 2020 season is viewed.
The Game is scheduled for Dec. 12 at Ohio Stadium. It will kick off at 12 p.m. ET on FOX.
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November 14, 2020 at 10:54PM
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Urban Meyer: Ohio State-Michigan 'going to be as big as ever' - 247Sports
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