Does Michigan football really have a mental edge over Ohio State?
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The rivalry has been described as a mental pretzel – the state of flummox Michigan football currently has over Ohio State.
The Wolverines have been underdogs in three of the teams’ past four meetings, including by 23½ points last season.
Still, despite two of the four games being played in Ohio State and the Buckeyes coming into every matchup as one of the top two teams in the country, Michigan has won all four, flipping what was a rivalry dominated by OSU into one suddenly controlled by the Wolverines.
OSU has always had equal or more talent on the field. It will again Saturday at Michigan Stadium, with the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten), college football’s defending champion, a 10-point favorite at Michigan (9-2, 7-1).
Is there something else at play? A mental edge?
“None of that really matters,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said Monday, Nov. 24, at his weekly press conference in Ann Arbor. “What people think, what people say, doesn’t matter. And what matters is how we compare, how we get rid of this game mentally, and that’s it.
“I don’t know what the mental edge piece [is], I just know that we’re going to just go prepare to win the game.”
In many ways, it would seem the Wolverines can have an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality for this showdown. Everything they’ve done in recent years, even in a year where the passing game amassed just 62 yards and had two interceptions on the road, has been enough to literally plant their flag.
According to Michigan true freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood, the training and focus all year has been to “peak at the right time,” which it seems to be doing again after its most resounding win of Big Ten play, 45-20, over Maryland last Saturday.
The Wolverines know it will take their best effort of the season to top OSU, and as much as they’d like it to play a factor, they don’t see how games in the past play a factor in 2025.
“We don’t really think about it that way,” senior tight end Marlin Klein said. “I think we just worry about us and what we have to do in our mental space that’s really just being the best version of ourselves each and every single day.”
Nobody who wears an OSU jersey has ever defeated Michigan as a member of the Buckeyes. The last time the Wolverines defeated OSU five times in a row? That was a six-game streak before the Great Depression − from 1922-28.
There was a run more recently, from 1988-93, where OSU went six years in a row without a victory, but that included a tie, 13-13, in 1992. Another win would allow the senior class to exit Ann Arbor with immeasurable pride.
It’s unclear, publicly, what OSU believes − coach Ryan Day has his weekly press conference Tuesday.
Moore’s message to the team Monday morning was simple, according to players: “This week it’s about us − it’s about Michigan.”
Are the past wins fun for fans? You bet. For rivalry fodder? Absolutely. But on the field, once the ball is kicked, it’s a new story.
“We’re not really worried about the last couple years at all,” fifth-year senior and captain Gio El-Hadi said. “It’s a whole new game, whole new team, whole new year every day. Just keep ramping up a little bit, just a little bit until game time. Then, you let it all out.”
Make “Hail Yes!” your go-to Wolverines podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify).
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Does Michigan football really have the mental edge over Ohio State?
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