Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Countdown to Kickoff - 18 days

November 25, 1995

Michigan 31 - OSU 23

Like the 1993 game, OSU came in without a loss, this time they were 11-0 and ranked #2 in the land. 18th ranked Michigan was 8-3 and was playing only for pride.
Eddie George was the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. Michigan's defense had let them down against Northwestern, MSU and Penn State, when late stops could have won the games.
The stadium was full of Buckeye fans with roses in their hands chanting "Eddie! Eddie!" awaiting what they thought would be a dominating OSU win.
It was obvious, Michigan had them right where they wanted them.
Michigan's defense and Tim Biakabutuka were the story of the first half. The defense held the Buckeyes to 3 field goals, while Biakabututka was nearing 200 yards. But M had managed only 10 points on a short pass to Clarence Williams and a Remy Hamilton field goal (he also had a miss)
With OSU's last field goal coming in the closing seconds, we wondered if they had gained the momentum. If they had, freshman Charles Woodson got it back early in the 2nd half, picking off a Bobby Hoying pass. Biakabutuka's running brought M down inside the 10. Brian Griese plunged into the endzone ot give M at 17-9 lead early in the 3rd.
Eddie George cut the score to 17-15 on a short TD dive late in the 4th. The two-point attempt failed, keeping M in the lead.
Biakabututka kept punishing the vaunted OSU defense. Clarence Williams took a third down pitch and scored his second TD of the day. Putting M up by 9 with 13 minutes left. Michigan struck again, with Touchdown Tim finally getting to put the icing on the drive. With 6 minutes to go Michigan had their biggest lead at 31-15.
OSU kept fighting, a Hoying TD pass and successful 2-point attempt cut the lead to 8 with more than 6 minutes still remaining. Michigan ran some clock, but couldn't close it out. Hoying hit Rickey Dudley at M's 34 yard line with just over a minute to go, it was getting pretty scary.
Charles Woodson - again made a great play for the ball over Terry Glenn on the next play and Michigan had stunned the Buckeyes again.
When it was over Biakabutuka rushed for 313 yards, second only Ron Johnson's 347 yard effort against Wisconsin in 1968. The only "Eddie" chants at the end of the game were Wolverine fans mocking their Buckeye visitors.

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