1969 Bo Comments on Victory over OSU

those were the scores and as nother poster pointed out and more meaningful, imo, was that OSU obviously believed they would be able to take control in the second half . I mean how many times under Woody  had their 1-2 time adjustments not proven correct? It was very similar to what Bama has now and to what Carroll had at USC as far as fielding a team annually that would always be better, talent wise, than the opposing team. A few years later, Bo even mentioned this about his own M team, "Very few fans realize how difficult it is to go through a season undefeated when you are always  the favorite."

But UM going down to score a TD that was ruled illegal and the FG attempts - but it was the TD - that told the OSU players, "Damn, we just got done discussing this and what we had to do to stop it. We did it and they still scored. They are every bit our equal and they  have the lead." Then our defense doing the same thing to their O. Even with their adjustments they knew they  had the  game. One of the top assistants during the entire 1/2 time, "They won't score again and repeating it over and over. Everyone was in their own little world of being aware the game was over, except Bo. He was aware they had played a great first half, but the head man never gets to relax until the clock and the score makes it impossible to lose the game.

The most important score of that game was our first TD. OSU took  the  ball first and marched right on down the field; Michigan, facing that, and dong the same damn thing spoke volumes. The defensive stop, Our O taking the lead after the early excitement had worn off was obviously big, but the chances for this and all else that followed to actuall occur was the needed confidence the first drive supplied.

Unlike a few others on this topic, I would not sacrifice all else to beat OSU. That is not Harbaugh's mission. What he is looking to build is a team that always has a great record and beats OSU just to put the period on a great regular season. If he can do both in his second season, that would be great, and like Bo, far ahead of schedule. But what Bo had unearthed after all the digging was a damn great  football team that just had to be reassembled the correct way. In year 2, Woody knew his former pupil had already built an equal to his team, and it had to be that dam team from up north. Harbaugh has a few pieces missing, but he is getting closer every time he gets a commit that the board doesnt see as all that significant but he knows will be one of the  major pieces.

The victory would be great, but like I said, the victory that will change the balance of power is the one that alows Jim to know they're ready to square off with anyone and at the same time Urban understands what Woody did.

it was nerve-wracking and then-- one helluva night in Ann Arbor!

Nowadays they'd say "we forgot them."

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That's interesting. In some ways, news/journalism from that era seems so bland. But now that I think about it, I agree, there were was some rather flowery diction reserved for sports.

Notre Dame (and pretty much everyone else) "sunk" the Navy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Navy_Midshipmen_football_team

If we go 1-11 with the one win coming against OSU in Columbus, that's a successful season in my mind (that wouldn't always be the case, but given that we're 2-13 against OSU since 2001 and haven't won in Columbis since 2000, there's nothing I would value more right now). 

Though we probably won't be in a position to contend for a playoff berth if we lose to OSU, I would rather we beat OSU than win the national championship this season. That's how bady I want this win.