Looking back at how each team reached the final Saturday of November, there was almost nothing out there to suggest the Wolverines would score this upset.
But there were two factors that were clearly overlooked. One was history: Michigan had won three in a row in this rivalry, so thoroughly humbling Ohio State that the No. 2 Buckeyes essentially reinvented themselves to regain a foothold in the series.
Another was Michigan’s defense. While not quite up to the standard set a year ago, this group carried the Wolverines into the postseason with no help from one of the worst offenses in modern program history.
History, defense, key plays in key moments, the ability to eventually dictate the flow of this game despite Ohio State’s best efforts, another dominant fourth quarter – that’s how the Wolverines scored what should go down as one of the great upsets in the rivalry’s history.
For Michigan, the win overwrites what had been an often miserable year under new coach Sherrone Moore. His tenure now has a marquee moment upon which to build the foundation for a future Big Ten or national champion.
In the immediate future, the Buckeyes will no longer reach the conference championship game. No. 1 Oregon will instead meet No. 4 Penn State, which closed out the regular season by beating Maryland. Not playing for the Big Ten crown will force Ohio State to sweat out the final College Football Playoff rankings and see where their postseason journey begins..
And in the bigger picture, this is a nightmare moment for coach Ryan Day. He is the first Ohio State coach to lose four in a row to Michigan since John Cooper from 1988-91 and the first coach to lose to an unranked Michigan team since Cooper in 1993.
This is the worst loss of Day’s tenure and one of the Buckeyes’ worst losses in this series. Despite his regular-season success against teams other than the Wolverines, Day may never live this one down.
The Buckeyes, Wolverines and South Carolina lead Saturday’s winners and losers:
Winners
Texas
Thirteen years in the making, the No. 3 Longhorns’ 17-7 win against No. 19 Texas A&M sends Texas to the SEC championship game against No. 6 Georgia. This was a 10-point game that felt much worse than that for the Aggies, who stayed in the game in the second half thanks to two Texas turnovers in the red zone and a blocked punt. Overall, this is the best win of the year for the Longhorns, which says something about the lack of marquee wins on this year’s schedule. Credit Texas for taking care of matters against a relatively weak slate. While not the prettiest win, this victory in College Station will go down in program history for being the first in this rekindled rivalry and for the high stakes at play.
Michigan
Michigan should play a bowl game in Charlotte, Nashville or Tampa while Ohio State might end up in the playoff, so the Buckeyes could end up having the last laugh. Yeah, right: The Wolverines are going to be laughing at the Buckeyes’ expense for another year after owning the fourth quarter, continuing one of the dominant themes of this four-game winning streak. Going back to 2021, Michigan has outscored OSU 75-31 in the second half.
South Carolina
With his team down 14-10 with just over a minute left, South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers weaved his way through No. 12 Clemson’s defense for a 20-yard touchdown run to complete the Gamecocks’ 17-14 win and an incredible run through the second half of the regular season. No. 14 South Carolina closed with six wins in a row, four against ranked competition, and now are in position to earn a miraculous playoff berth with some help in the Power Four. In a do-or-die rivalry matchup for both teams, the Gamecocks were able to intercept Cade Klubnik on the game’s final possession to win in Death Valley for the second time in a row.
Clemson
But Clemson is also a winner, of a sort. Despite losing the rivalry game, the Tigers will backdoor into the ACC championship game by virtue of No. 6 Miami’s loss to Syracuse. After all this, Clemson might get back into the playoff by beating No. 9 SMU and winning the ACC for seventh time in nine years.
Tennessee and Notre Dame
These two prominent playoff contenders locked down at-large bids with rivalry wins to close out the regular season. Nico Iamaleava had four touchdowns passes to spark No. 8 Tennessee’s 36-23 win against Vanderbilt. Later on Saturday afternoon, the No. 5 Fighting Irish outscored Southern California 21-7 in the third quarter and then had two field-length interception returns for touchdowns in the fourth to win 49-35. The Irish are in position to host an opening-round playoff opponent. The Volunteers may as well, depending on what happens in next week’s conference championship games.
Virginia Tech
Beating Virginia 37-17 to get bowl eligible takes some sting out of a season that didn’t quite according to plan for Virginia Tech, which received some Top 25 consideration in the preseason but struggled through a rough start and finish to the regular season. The Hokies lost three of five to open the year and then, crippled by injuries, lost three in a row to open November. But despite some setbacks, this team was close to breaking through: Tech’s six losses came by a combined 34 points, with five of six coming by single digits.
Marshall
Down 17-0 at halftime to James Madison and needing a win to fend off Georgia Southern and reach the Sun Belt championship game, Marshall outscored the Dukes 24-7 in the second half and then won 35-33 in double overtime to earn a matchup next Saturday with Louisiana-Lafayette. The Thundering Herd gained only 262 yards of offense but made several big plays on defense, most notably a 28-yard pick-six to tie the game at 17-17 with two minutes to go in the third quarter. Marshall hasn’t won a conference title since taking the Conference USA belt in 2014.
Losers
The ACC
Losing 42-38 to Syracuse puts No. 6 Miami’s playoff hopes in dire straits. But they aren’t dead entirely, not with the messiness that has ensued in the SEC and the dearth of contenders with fewer than three losses. We’ll know with the penultimate playoff rankings on Tuesday night where Miami really stands. The Hurricanes’ case rests on at least five wins against bowl teams, led by wins against Duke and Louisville. Overall, though, this is the story for the ACC: That Clemson and Miami lost on Saturday very likely makes this a one-bid league to the playoff.
Ryan Day
It’s hard to describe just how disastrous Saturday was for Day, who has excelled at Ohio State in every metric but the two that matter: beating the Wolverines and winning national championships. He may still have the chance to achieve the latter thanks to playoff expansion. But regardless of what happens over the next two months, this loss to Michigan is one Day will never live down. While the idea that he’d be replaced after this year remains difficult to imagine, Day will at a minimum head into the 2025 season needing to beat Michigan, play for the Big Ten crown and make a deep run into the playoff to ensure his future with the Buckeyes.
Kansas
The second-half magic ran out near the finish line for Kansas, which had three ranked wins in a row against Iowa State, Brigham Young and Colorado but lost 45-21 to Baylor to fall just shy of bowl eligibility. Down 21-10 at halftime, the Jayhawks allowed three touchdown drives of at least 62 yards in the third quarter to trail 42-17 heading into the third quarter. This was the first game all year that got out of hand: The Jayhawks’ remaining six losses came by a combined 30 points.
Auburn
The Iron Bowl came at the right time for No. 13 Alabama. After last week’s 24-3 loss to Oklahoma, the Crimson Tide took out some frustration on Auburn by running for 201 yards and four scores in a 28-14 win. That’s the Tigers’ fifth loss in a row in the series, the program’s longest losing streak since dropping nine in a row from 1973-81. The loss also keeps Auburn out of the postseason for the second time in three years while handing coach Hugh Freeze back-to-back losing seasons for the first time in his coaching career.
