Michigan Enters Showdown With Ohio State Looking for 10th Win

Michigan Enters Showdown With Ohio State Looking for 10th Win
John Nestor

Ann Arbor, MI

To see a perfect example of how quickly things can change in college football you only need to look at saturday's matchup between Michigan and Ohio State.

For the first time in a long, long time, it is the Wolverines who enter the grudge match as the favorites as well as the better team.

Looking for their first win in the series since 2003, Michigan looks to close out a turnaround season under first-year head coach Brady Hoke with a long-awaited victory over Ohio State.

Michigan (9-2, 5-2) is entering the game coming off its most complete performance to date, a 45-17 dismantling of Nebraska.

Quarterback Denard Robinson completed 11-of-18 passes for 180 yards and a pair of touchdowns and ran for 83 yards and two more touchdowns for the Wolverines.

While Robinson is a dual threat on offense and leads a pretty potent Michigan attack, it is the improvement on defense that has helped turn things around in Ann Arbor.

In 2010 the Wolverines ranked 110th in the nation in total defense (450.8 yards per game) and 108th in the nation in scoring defense (35.2 points per game). This year under defensive coordinator Greg Mattison Michigan is yielding 312.6 yards per game and 15.6 points per game.

Last season Michigan entered the Ohio State game with uncertainty hovering over the program in regards to the future of then coach Rich Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was eventually fired - he was named coach at Arizona Tuesday - and the Wolverines turned to Hoke.

Now it is Ohio State that enters the game as the staggering program.

The Buckeyes (6-5, 3-4) have already suffered their most losses in a season since 2001. Interim coach Luke Fickell took over for Jim Tressel before the season began as Tressel was ousted in the wake of the tatoos for memorabilia scandal and numerous NCAA investigations.

Ohio State has been woeful on offense and has its own coaching controversy brewing as reports cotinue to circulate that former Florida coach Urban Meyer will be headed to Coliumbus next season.