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Michigan Football at Ohio State 2022 (Patrick Barron)*

*(I took more photos at this game than probably the last three combined and I'm still going through them so come back the next couple days and there will probably be more uploaded. As of typing this there are 164!)

I woke up Saturday morning at my dad's house at 4:30 feeling ready to go. I know some of you did, too, because when I did my weekly "I will be your photographer today" tweet, some of you were already liking it. I think I fell asleep at around 1 am the night before after shooting the hockey game. I don't remember. It was a 2.5 hours drive to Columbus and I wanted to beat the traffic.

When I got to the stadium, the morning light was just touching the walls. The "parking lot opens at 8 so we must be there at 8" crowd was filtering into the city and the roads weren't even shut down yet. I waited outside Gate 22 for the media will call to open up because the email said to go in next to Gate 23 but didn't specifically say that even gates were on one side of the stadium and odd gates on the other. I'd still be standing there if Event Staff didn't kindly explain math to me.

I love the sublimity of being in an empty stadium before the teams even arrive. There's a calmness to being in the middle of what will soon be the densest square half mile of humans in the world and the most watched event in the U.S. that day. It's Gandalf and Pippin staring out over the Pelennor Fields, the deep breathe before the plunge. Our sports world domain, a pocket world that we devote a finite amount of our lives to, was about to change, we just didn't know how. I mean it's Football Armageddon fergodsakes. I walked around the field trying to just take in as much as I could. Time was moving slow, my group chat was blowing up, the photo room did not have coffee. I was upset about the coffee for most of the day. Maybe this was for the best because to calm my anxiety throughout the week I drank too much coffee and edited pictures of birds.

The Michigan buses pulled up and the team quietly walked in. The entirety of my Twitter timeline was waiting for an update on Blake Corum. Jim walked off the bus and smiled at the cheering Michigan fans. The calmness of his smile felt like he knew something we didn't. We've seen what he looks like when he's hyper-focused and intense, and this was not that.

The team was dead silent on the status of Blake Corum all week. When he walked in, he clearly did not want to be seen. I mean, I get it, I have a silent rule with the coworkers at my day job to not talk to me before 9 am. Maybe he wanted people to think he didn't travel? Did he honestly think he would just sneak past six or seven cameras? He could wear a full-faced mask and we would still recognize the short guy with the tree-trunk sized legs walking in.

Players trickled onto the field for warm-ups. Brad Robbins gave me a fist bump and proceeded to meditate at the base of Mount Doom.

Most of the team came out for walk-arounds and casual warm-ups. Usually this time during games is very uneventful but at The Game, nothing is truly uneventful. As a reminder to always have fun, I drew a smiley face on my hand. JJ saw it as he walked out and smiled/showed me his smiley face hand. My narrative is that this moment inspired him to score four touchdowns on the day, you cannot technically prove this wrong, so I'm deciding my narrative is correct. You're all very welcome.

Corum took the field for warmups. Upon close inspection, there was a knee brace under his pants. He did his routine, warming up with Donovan Edwards. Twitter erupted at the thought of this being his Heisman Moment day. I was far more skeptical, I figured someone else would have to be a hero today.

Donovan Edwards threw me some deuces while warming up. I threw deuces back. He smiled. He would go on to run for 216 yards.

The stage was set. It was loud. Like Penn State white-out loud. Zoey's watch was giving sound warnings and reminding us that 30 minutes of this volume could result in temporary hearing loss. It surpassed 100 dBs a few times during the day. This would not last.

It was game time.

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Michigan Football at Ohio State 2022 (Patrick Barron)

[The Game after THE JUMP]

Ohio State scored on their opening drive. Blake Corum's day would be done after two carries. The Horseshoe was rocking. Some old familiar feelings of "ah, oh well." started trickling in. Ryan Day's conservative play calling habits seemed to keep Ohio State from truly bursting the dam open but with no Blake Corum and a concerning lack of pass rush, it felt like only a matter of time.

And then it got quiet.

Cornelius did that. And then... he did it again.

You know how quiet it gets when a star player suddenly gets hurt? This was that quiet. That feeling of "oh no, not again" from Michigan fans after years and years of heart break against Ohio State was suddenly... reversed. There was a genuine "uh oh" vibe from the crowd.

Michigan would go into the locker room down by only 3. The entire stadium was... tense.

Mike Barrett talked about breaking their will. "You can feel when their will breaks. ... You can feel it go out of them."

This was true of the fans, as well. Ohio State felt nervous and defensive. And Michigan? Well...

I checked in on an old friend. He was doing about as well as last year.

And Michigan waved their flag on the last light of the Ohio State Empire.

Mike Barrett was right, they were broken. Donovan Edwards sealed the deal.

Then stomped on the deal.

The defense picked off CJ Stroud twice. Mike Sainristil was making plays like this:
 

And Michigan waved goodbye and said "drive home safely."
 

I've been in the Ohio State field rush after The Game. I've never been injured or anything but they can be dangerous and unpredictable for someone carrying camera gear, so I was mildly concerned about it coming into the game, should it happen.

Instead, fans left in droves in the middle of the 4th quarter. The Michigan fans were going insane. The band played The Victors on repeat. Ohio State fans looked shook.

And then Michigan planted their damn flag in the middle of Ohio Stadium.

And then paraded it while recruits were on the field. TJ Guy told them "DON'T COME HERE." Two of them would commit to Michigan in the next 24 hours.

This is the second consecutive year that Michigan looked like the more dominant team. It's one thing to do it at home, it's another thing to do it on the road and send 100,000 arch-rival fans home early. Jim Harbaugh built the entire ship out of beating Ohio State. That ship is starting to feel like an aircraft carrier.

The future is Michigan.

(Also, Michigan football has never lost in the history of MGoPhotos Of The Game).

Go Blue.