Perspective Piece: Michigan-Ohio State

Jim Tressel is your high school calculus teacher. Sweater vest, crisp white shirt, straight-arrow tie, relentless and sober attention to detail, all the personality of a linear equation.

Ron English is a liberal arts kinda guy. The Michigan defensive coordinator is expressive and emotive, letting the passions flow as he inspires his boys to unleash their energies on the field.

And so the battle lines are drawn: It's the Calculus Professor against the English Majors in an epic collision worthy of "The Game," as they call this collegiate pigksin classic. This year, the rite of November in the Upper Midwest--almost always the de facto title tilt in the Big Ten--is also half of a Final Four. No, Jim Nantz and Billy Packer won't be calling the action (Packer's former colleague Brent Musburger will have that responsibility), but this game is indeed the equivalent of a National Semifinal. Fourteen years ago, these two schools played for the Final Four in basketball; this year, they'll play for a spot in the national championship game on the gridiron.

Michigan-Ohio State is so huge this year that one team will likely receive a bouquet of Roses and a plane ticket to Pasadena... and yet find itself drenched in devastation, dejection and defeat. It's a sad commentary on how the BCS has destroyed college football's most venerable traditions, but systemic reform must come in future seasons. For now, the Wolverines and Buckeyes have their sights set on a championship (no, it's far bigger than the Big Ten crown) and a date in the desert on January 8. The winner of this game gets to spend 51 days immersing itself in the satisfaction of knowing that it will play for the national title. All these realities--and others which haven't been unearthed as of yet--make this the biggest occasion in the 103-year history of The Game. There have been several extremely significant showdowns between these powers over the decades (1997, 2003), and the 1969 Michigan upset ranks as this rivalry's most memorable and storied event, but in terms of the whole package, no confrontation in this hallowed series has had more to offer than this one. That's a whopper of a statement to make, but with the winner assured of a ticket to Glendale (and the loser possibly still in the running for a rematch that, while a remote possibility, could indeed happen), it's very hard to come up with an argument to the contrary.

The stakes are higher than high, the buildup already (on Sunday) over the top, the anxieties noticeably elevated with kickoff still a long ways away. Once the Maize and Blue confront the Scarlet and Gray, however, emotions will have to give way to on-field excellence.

Just what will make the difference in this awesomely cataclysmic collision? In every big game, it's the not-so-sexy matchup that usually tells the tale. On Saturday, then, that matchup is Chad Henne against the Ohio State back seven. The high-profile matchup, of course, pits Troy Smith against the English Majors, and it's no secret that Michigan has to contain the Heisman Trophy frontrunner for the first time in three meetings. But even if Troy Boy gets contained by the Wolverines' highly-touted defense, Lloyd Carr's offense--coordinated by Mike DeBord--must be good enough to take advantage of field position opportunities and silence the massive throng that will yell its brains out in the Horseshoe.

It's hard to refute the idea that Chad Henne's best season in Ann Arbor was his 2004 freshman campaign. Henne and Mike Hart took the college football world by storm that season, and while Henne has admirably shrugged off a sluggish sophomore sojourn, he hasn't found playmaking potency with tremendous regularity. Yes, he's been even more effective at minimizing mistakes while allowing his stud defense to win games, but Henne--albeit without Mario Manningham--hasn't set the world on fire this season. On Saturday, with James Laurinaitis and the rest of a resurgent OSU defense coming at him, Henne will need to establish and sustain a very hot hand. Unlike Smith, his counterpart, Henne won't make plays with his legs. Michigan's signal caller therefore has that much more of a burden to hit home-run passes and convert an extremely high percentage of third downs. Without the best performance of his UM career, Henne won't reduce the numbers the Buckeyes will put in the tackle box to stop Hart and the Wolverine ground game. It really is up to Henne to do all the things a road offense must do in a game this huge: muzzle the crowd, spread the defense, score points, move the chains, and keep the ball from the guy wearing No. 10 on the other sideline.

If the English Majors can produce a defensive touchdown, and Steve Breaston can break off a kick return, perhaps Henne won't need to play the game of his life for Michigan to win. True enough, huge plays from unexpected sources will dramatically and instantaneously change a game's trajectory. But in all likelihood, Troy Smith--so mature as a team leader in addition to being a prodigious playmaker--isn't likely to hand the Wolverines cheap points or gift-wrapped turnovers. Chad Henne and Michigan will have to take this game with two-fisted totality and wrench it away from the Buckeyes' grasp.

Yes, Michigan and Ohio State are playing for the Rose Bowl when they step onto the field Saturday in Columbus. But this time, Pasadena is, in all likelihood, the destination for the loser. In the new and dysfunctional world of college football, some things are still pure and perfect enough to transcend a sport's systemic flaws. Wolverines battling Buckeyes on green gridiron grass has always been a national sporting treasure. This year, an American classic has even more gold in the prize pot. What more could you possibly want?

A rematch?