After Michigan beat OSU (again) to ruin a heretofore-undefeated season and a shot at the MNC (again), Mike Maguire commented on a.s.c.m how much of a Sure ThingTM the U-M/OSU game has become recently. "hoye1", who lacked the stones to give his real name, responded (if you can call it that). I couldn't let his retort go unanswered.

Here's the exchange:


Subject: Re: MAIZE and BLUE Whip whOa iS yoU (Again) - 11/24/96
Date: 26 Nov 1996 04:35:45 -0800
From: [redacted]
Newsgroups: alt.sports.college.michigan
References: <19961124175200.MAA22840@ladder01.news.aol.com> <3299F91C2E5478@ix.netcom.com>
In article <3299F91C.5478@ix.netcom.com>, hoye1@ix.netcom.com says...
|
|mmaguire1@aol.com wrote:
|> 
|> This time of year - just before Thanksgiving - means the same thing for U
|> of M fans nearly every year.  Easy Money.  Odds makers in Las Vegas made
|> OSU 17-1/2 point favorites over our Wolverines.  The money was even easier
|> this year than most.
|> 
|> ...
|> 
|> In the fourth quarter, with Michigan up 13-9, with the ball and time
|> running out - there was no secret what the Wolverines were going to do.
|> Chris Howard was grinding out 8-12 yards per carry -- reminiscent of Tim
|> 313 Biakabatuka.  ABC s cameras panned the OSU side line.  From John
|> Cooper on down to the players on the sidelines we saw long, sad, defeated
|> faces.  There were 5 minutes left in the game.  They were only down by 4
|> points.  But they had already given up.  Why?  They had been there before.
|>  They knew what the outcome would be.

I noticed this, too.  They were down by less than a touchdown, and the offense
had already cashed it in.  They weren't watching Howard run, they were
seeing Biakabutuka.  They knew the defense had given up.  They knew they
weren't getting the ball back with enough time to do anything about it.
At home, with a shot at the national title at stake, and they couldn't stay
motivated.  We complain about Fred Jackson's play-calling; hell, he's 
the second coming of Fielding Yost compared to Cooper and his (total lack
of any) ability to keep his players' heads in a tight game.

|> What is really amusing is how in September the Buckys are rolling over
|> Cream Puff State 72-0 and Dead Dog U 77-7.  We hear how they have
|> outscored their opponents 255-10 the first three games.  It gets them a
|> top 3 ranking.  We laugh.  We say - you still have to play Michigan boys.
|> And after you lose again, all of this unsportsman-like running up the
|> score just to suck up to the pollsters will mean nothing -- except Easy
|> Money for Wolverine fans come Thanksgiving.
|> 
|> Mike Maguire
|
|Refresh my memory please.....how did your conquering zeroes do against
|Northwestern, Purdue (Purdue???), and Penn State?

The single most predictable batch of sour grapes an OSU fan could be
expected to dump on us (in fact, I made a side bet on the number of whining
'so what was YOUR record?/We're still going to the Rose Bowl' posts.  The 
over/under was 3.  I took the over). 

Funny, I don't recall this being the original poster's point.  Sure, we all
know what the scores were there.  But _this_ was supposed to be OSU's year 
(again), they were undefeated (again), they had a real shot at the MNC (again),
they were big favorites (again) over an underachieving Meeeshigan team (um,
again), and . . . U-M . . . beat . . . them.  Again.

And remember that you heard it here first: ASU 24, OSU 14, because Cooper
has zero ability to bring his players back after a tough loss.  And that game
will be over as soon as ASU takes the lead... just like the U-M game was.

One last note to Gordon Gee: thanks ever so much for extending Coop's contract.
Face it, hoye1, as long as Cooper is at OSU, the Maize and Blue will own the
H^HBuckeyes.  Either stadium, regardless of records.

And if you'll excuse me, I have to go collect from my bookie.  Again.




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