FIESTA BOWL HERE WE COME. They say that Great Defenses win championships. Ohio State is one victory away from proving that theory correct as the Ohio State Buckeye defense did not allow the Michigan team a touchdown on their way to a 14-9 victory. Ohio State will try and become the FIRST TEAM EVER to go 14-0 in a season if they can win at the Fiesta Bowl.

HOW WE BEAT MICHIGAN. Enough about that bowl game let's talk about the GREAT win over Michigan. In what has now become a typical scenerio for this team, OSU relied on their defense to keep them in the game, and the offense, led by running back Maurice Clarett and quarterback Craig Krenzel, played a conservative, mistake free game and stepped up when they had to as they drove to a go ahead touchdown late in the 4th quarter score with 4:54 left in the game to take the lead. The defense then hung on to win down the stretch with an interception at the goal line on the last play of the game as OSU beat the University of Michigan for the second year in a row.

THE MICHIGAN JINX IS DEAD. Now - before proceeding with the game details - let's pause for a moment as we bury the "OSU vs Michigan" Jinx that Coach Cooper cultivated so well.....................May you R.I.P..........

ANOTHER FANTASTIC FINISH. O.K now back to the game. Let's look at the facts. Michigan dominated time of possession (35 minutes to 25 minutes), Michigan ran more plays (74 plays to our 48 plays), Michigan doubled our passing yardage (248 to 124) and Michigan led almost the entire game until allowing the winning touchdown with 4:54 left in the game. So how did we win a game where Michigan actually dominated the game? Turnovers and the inability of Michigan to cross the goaline. Michigan's Quarterback John "Steve Bellasari" Navarre had two late turnovers and Michigan had to settle for 3 field goals in the first half on their "dominating" drives and then they got shut down in the second half while OSU, on the other hand, with their whole season on the line (again), once again showed their heart and desire as they made a "championship season drive" late in the 4th quarter which concluded with a touchdown by Maurice Hall on a clutch "option play" call by Coach Jim Tressel which completely fooled the Michigan Defense. One other factor played a significant role - we had Maurice Clarett back in our lineup! GO BUCKS!!

NOTES
1. Coach Tressel has now won as many games against Michigan in 2 years as Coach Cooper did in 13 years.
2. Quarterback Craig Krenzel is the first OSU Quarterback to beat Michigan in back to back years since the 1974-75 seasons when Cornelius Greene defeated Michigan 2 years in a row.
3. Coach Tressel, with a 20-5 record, is now the OSU football coaches all time percentage winner in OSU history.
4. Ohio State is the first Big Ten School EVER to play in the history of the BCS Series.
5. Maurice Clarett became the all time OSU yardage leader for freshman running backs with 1,190 as he passed Robert Smith's record of 1,126.
6. Maurice Clarett also set OSU freshman records for most TD's in a season (16), points (96), and 100 yard games (7).
7. OSU has 6 wins by 7 or fewer points this season.
8. OSU had a record crowd for the game- 105,539
9. OSU has back to back wins over UM for the first time since 1981-1982.
10. The was the first game all year where UM did not score a touchdown.
11. This was the 9th time that an OSU team has finished the regular season undefeated. (1979, 1975, 1970, 1968, 1954, 1944, 1920, 1916).
12. Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was quoted twice after the game as saying it was a very "heartbreaking loss" (heh, heh, how does it feel?)Click here for a Michigan Link to read all about it.

Next up: Fiesta Bowl against a team to be determined. Probably Miami of Florida.

JDLOSU