Breaking down Michigan football’s 30-24 win over Ohio State
“Hail, yes!” Podcast hosts Tony Garcia and Rainer Sabin describe Michigan’s 30-24 win over Ohio State on November 25, 2023 at Michigan Stadium.
Ohio State and Michigan lived up to the hype and delivered an intense and intense matchup between two of the best teams in the Bowl Subdivision.
Michigan’s 30-24 win is the third straight in the series, a first since 1995-97, and says in bold and italics what we already knew: The Big Ten, and this rivalry belongs to the Wolverines.
The win sends Michigan to the Big Ten championship game and a pairing with Iowa. A win there would make the Wolverines no worse than the runner-up in the semifinals, depending on what happens in the SEC Championship Game.
The win against the Buckeyes puts the spotlight on coach Jim Harbaugh, who ended his three-game conference suspension related to the program’s sign-stealing scandal and will be back on the sidelines for the game against the Hawkeyes. A loss would have made it impossible to ignore the ongoing NCAA investigation into the scandal and the fact that Harbaugh was suspended for half of Michigan’s regular-season schedule.
Instead, Saturday’s fallout is reserved for Ohio State coach Ryan Day and the Buckeyes, who spent months honing a more physical style to better compete with the Wolverines but were overwhelmed in the second half.
A year ago, Ohio State lost to Michigan but still made the College Football Playoff. Given the strength of the Power Five contenders in this year’s race, the Buckeyes’ chances of finishing in the top four this season are slim to none.
The program is expected to begin next season with Day at the helm, although the scrutiny he faces after this loss could make this a moment to explore other options like Texas A&M. With or without Day, it will be another offseason of intense self-reflection.
The Wolverines and Buckeyes list Saturday’s winners and losers:
winner
Washington
It took a few moments of luck, perseverance and overcoming some nerve-racking calls in the final minute, but Washington remained undefeated with a 24-21 Apple Cup win over Washington State. This makes next Friday’s Pac-12 Championship rematch against Oregon a playoff play-in game; The Huskies won 36-33 when the rivals met during the regular season. Washington was able to sneak past the Cougars despite another mediocre game from quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who completed 18 of 33 throws for just 6.2 yards per attempt. But in the final two minutes, he delivered a 65-yard scoring drive that was capped by a 42-yard field goal as time expired. The Huskies have been living on borrowed time for months with a string of close wins, but are still just one win away from a playoff spot.
Alabama
With Alabama trailing 24-20 and facing fourth-and-goal from the Auburn 31-yard line with less than a minute left, Jalen Milroe took a shotgun snap and stood in the middle of a clean pocket for seven seconds and then found wide receiver Isaiah Bond in the back left corner of the end zone to clinch a 27-24 Iron Bowl victory and keep the Crimson Tide’s playoff hopes alive heading into the SEC Championship Game against Georgia. Milroe made another late Heisman declaration with 366 yards of total offense, including a team-high 107 yards on the ground, and two touchdown passes without an interception. The miraculous victory brings the Tide into December with just a single non-conference loss to Texas, making this season one of the most impressive of coach Nick Saban’s career.
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Oklahoma State
Trailing Brigham Young 24-6 at halftime, the Cowboys forced three touchdowns from Ollie Gordon to force overtime, then outscored the Cougars 40-34 in two additional frames to earn a spot against Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game. Oklahoma State was pushed out as a contender after losses to South Alabama and Iowa State in September and finished with seven wins in eight games to earn a shot at the second conference title of the Mike Gundy era. The comeback win is heartbreaking for rival Oklahoma, which lost to the Cowboys earlier this season and needed a BYU win to secure a rematch with the Longhorns. Gordon’s 166 rushing yards and five touchdowns could be enough to send Gordon to Manhattan as a Heisman finalist.
State of Florida
It wasn’t a perfect day: Louisville’s loss to Kentucky isn’t good for Florida State, which obviously would have preferred the Cardinals to take just one loss into the ACC championship game, and Alabama could have beaten Auburn to get into the playoffs on Life to Stay The Seminoles will be looking over their shoulders when the committee releases the final rankings next Sunday. In the end, however, they can and should just focus on taking care of business and finishing the regular season undefeated, confident that no undefeated Power Five team would miss out on the top four. So far, so good. Backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker had 134 passing yards in his first start in place of Jordan Travis, and the Seminoles posted a 24-15 win at Florida and went a perfect 12-0 heading into the matchup against Louisville. Defensively, FSU held the Gators to just 232 yards and did a really good job with young quarterback Max Brown, who only had 86 yards on 16 attempts with one interception.
Michigan State
The Spartans ended the regular season with a 42-0 loss to Penn State on Friday, the final chapter of one of the most miserable years in program history. A day later, there was good news: Michigan State officially hired former Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith, a skilled rebuilder who built the Beavers into one of the Pac-12’s top teams and a contender for the New Year’s Six. That experience will pay dividends as he takes over a team and program in need of a major overhaul.
The new bowler is eligible
Several teams secured bowl eligibility shortly before the end. That includes Central Florida, which beat Houston 27-13. Virginia Tech is back in the postseason for the first time under coach Brent Pry after a 55-17 win over Virginia in the Commonwealth Cup. Also earning their sixth win Saturday were South Florida, Rice, Marshall, Syracuse, Old Dominion, Louisiana-Lafayette and Northern Illinois.
loser
Ryan Day
Day’s tenure is in danger of being consumed by his team’s failures against Michigan, just as the John Cooper era at Ohio State will be remembered not for two near-national championships in 1996 and 1998, but for its dismal record against Michigan the Wolverines. Day is now 56-7 overall with the Buckeyes, but three of those losses came in this rivalry and all but one came against teams in the top five of the playoff rankings. So these games against Michigan may be representative of a larger problem facing the program: Ohio State has enjoyed weaker opponents but has fallen short against other members of college football’s upper echelon, starting with this bitter rivalry.
Louisville
Louisville’s playoff hopes won’t be changed all that dramatically by a 38-31 loss to Kentucky — the Cardinals almost certainly wouldn’t make it anyway, so whatever. Not to say this doesn’t hurt. The Cardinals outgained the Wildcats by more than 100 yards but turned the ball over three times, allowed a special teams touchdown and were unable to stop Ray Davis, who totaled 127 yards of offense and three scores. The bottom line isn’t changing all that much: Louisville can clinch a bid to the New Year’s Six by beating Florida State in the ACC championship game, or as the second-best team in the conference if the Seminoles finish in the top four. Unfortunately, the loss marks a bad end to coach Jeff Brohm’s remarkable debut regular season.
North Carolina
UNC won six straight to start the year but will enter the postseason having lost four of six, capped by an ugly 39-20 loss at rival North Carolina State. The Wolfpack and coach Dave Doeren deserve a lot of credit for a nine-win season that few expected, especially given the team’s struggles at quarterback and on offense. But this was more about the Tar Heels and the feeling that this was a wasted season: wasted by not making the most of a hot start, an ACC ripe for the taking, and what will likely be the quarterback’s final season will be Drake Maye, a likely top pick in next year’s NFL draft. NC State did a good job with Maye, limiting the potential All-America selection to 22 completions on 38 attempts for 254 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. However, Maye had 106 yards and a score on the ground.
Florida
Florida is an undisciplined, inconsistent program that can’t even find a way to beat the Travis-less Seminoles at home when it needs a win to secure bowl eligibility. The loss drops the Gators to 5-7 and Billy Napier becomes the program’s first coach since Raymond Wolf in 1946-47 to have two straight losing seasons. Napier joins Wolf and Josh Cody (1936-37) as the only coaches to have suffered defeats in each of his first two seasons. Yes, in case it wasn’t clear, Napier is shaping up to be a historically disastrous job for Florida.
Colorado
Two months ago, Colorado was hailed as the greatest story in college football — if not the greatest story in all of sports — after opening the Deion Sanders era with wins over TCU, Nebraska and Colorado State. From then on, the Buffaloes would win just once, capping the regular season as quarterback Shedeur Sanders was sidelined in a 23-17 loss to Utah. Playing with fourth-down quarterback Luke Bottari, the Utes made just 10 pass attempts against 53 carries for 268 yards.
The Five Win Club
Several teams entered rivalry weekend needing a win to land in the bowl game but failed. BYU and Washington State narrowly missed surprises. There’s also Navy, which trailed SMU 52-7 at halftime and suffered a huge loss. Minnesota couldn’t overcome the crisis after losing to Wisconsin for the first time in three years. Illinois lost a shootout to Northwestern 45-43. South Carolina was eliminated by a 16-7 loss to Clemson. Earlier this week, Mississippi State lost the Egg Bowl to Mississippi, Central Michigan lost to Toledo, TCU was destroyed by Oklahoma and, worst of all, Nebraska lost 13-10 to Iowa, ending Matt Rhule’s first season.
The Glad It’s Over Club
Well, at least it’s over. Luckily, we never have to look at Baylor, Cincinnati, Nevada, Indiana, Pittsburgh and Houston again. The Bears failed to make a late defensive stop and lost 34-31 to West Virginia, increasing the likelihood that Dave Aranda’s program will continue. Cincinnati won more than 50 games in the last five years under Luke Fickell, but went 3-9 under Scott Satterfield and finished with a 49-16 home loss to Kansas. Pittsburgh also finished 3-9, and the less said about the Panthers the better.