导出博客文章John Davis still owns a physical piece of the Big Tens Game of the Century. It
sits in a plastic baggie in his mothers closet.Davis was a high school senior in
Columbus, Ohio, in 2006, when he worked all summer in a TV repair shop to afford
tickets to the Michigan-Ohio State game that season. After the No. 1 Buckeyes
held off the No. 2 Wolverines 42-39, Davis and thousands of other fans ran onto
the Ohio Stadium field and dug up their own souvenir patches of grass.Davis
grabbed a hunk of turf near the 50-yard line. Ten years later, that
once-pristine soil has degraded to become a few clumps of dirt, but the memories
remain fresh. Hands down the best game Ive ever seen and the best game Ive ever
been to, said Davis, now 28.No. 3 Michigan and No. 2 Ohio State look headed for
another potential classic in the Horseshoe on Saturday (noon ET, ABC/ESPN App),
and it naturally conjures up thoughts from a decade earlier. This will be the
first top-five matchup between the two schools since Nov. 18, 2006, which
featured the only showdown of Nos. 1 vs. 2 in 112 versions of the series.Even if
Saturdays game turns into an instant classic, it would have a hard time matching
its 2006 predecessor in hype, drama and circumstance. That game came before the
College Football Playoff and Big Ten division era, meaning the winner would head
straight to the national title game. It carried the tinge of tragedy, as
Michigan legend Bo Schembechler died a little more than 24 hours before kickoff.
The outcome decided the most recent Big Ten Heisman Trophy winner. And the game
itself so thoroughly lived up to expectations that some called for a rematch in
the BCS championship.It was one of those moments when you knew and you could
feel that everybody in the entire country was watching you, said Doug Datish,
the starting center for Ohio State in 2006. You could feel the enormity of it.It
was a moment when two old archrivals stood atop the college football world.Ive
never seen anything as big as this gameThe collision course between Ohio State
and Michigan became apparent early on in 2006.The Buckeyes entered the season
ranked No. 1 in both major polls and dispatched No. 2 Texas 24-7 in Austin in
Week 2. The Wolverines, who were 14th in the preseason, beat the new No. 2 team,
Notre Dame, 47-21 in South Bend in Week 3. From there on, each ripped through
the Big Ten schedule.Maybe four or five weeks into the season, guys in our
locker room started talking, said David Patterson,?who played defensive tackle
for the Buckeyes. Hey, Michigan might be undefeated. We might both be
undefeated.The Wolverines climbed to No. 2 in the second week of the BCS
standings on Oct. 22, and the two teams would stay 1-2 until their season-ending
clash the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It was the first time since 1973 that
the two teams entered The Game undefeated. ESPNs College GameDay headed to
Columbus, along with an HBO documentary crew. Ohio State issued a record number
of media credentials, and the traditional noon kickoff time was moved to 3:30
p.m. ET to increase exposure.Ohio State fan Austin Capell, who was in sixth
grade at the time, remembers his elementary school outside of Dayton playing
Buckeye Battle Cry over the loudspeakers the Friday before the game and O-H-I-O
chants breaking out all during recess.Ive never seen anything as big as this
game, said Bruce Madej, who served as Michigans sports information director from
1982 to 2010. It was wild.Michigan-Ohio State week is always intense on both
sides. Buckeyes head coach Jim Tressel had former coach Earle Bruce deliver a
fiery address to the team on Sunday night, and former star linebacker Jack Tatum
gave a speech on Thursday night. The Wolverines had their own motivational
speaker lined up for a Thursday talk: Bo Schembechler.The legendary coach was in
poor health, and he skipped an appointment with a cardiologist to speak to the
team, said his son, Shemy Schembechler. As late as Thursday afternoon, Shemy
Schembechler said, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr tried to talk Bo out of the speech
and to visit his doctor instead.But Bo said, Im speaking to the team if its the
last thing I do, Shemy recalled.Tom Slade, a Michigan quarterback from the early
1970s, had just died of leukemia a few days earlier. Schembechler told the
Wolverines about the bond he still had with Slade and stressed how loyalty and
brotherhood defined a Michigan man.It was a heartfelt speech, a pretty amazing
speech, said Leon Hall, former Michigan cornerback now with the NFLs New York
Giants. A lot of the reasons we are who we are at Michigan is because of him.
The next morning, Schembechler died of a heart attack while preparing to tape
his weekly TV show. Carr called a team meeting to break the news to the
players.He told us that it doesnt change anything, said Garrett Rivas, the
place-kicker for the 2006 Wolverines. We werent going to go Win for Bo, because
thats not the way he would have wanted it. He wouldnt have wanted to take
anything away from the rivalry. Suddenly, the immensely hyped game took on new
meaning for the Wolverines.There was a pall over the game, just because he was
such a significant part of not just Michigan but the Big Ten and nationally, Big
Ten commissioner Jim Delany said. I remember there was kind of a depressed feel
about it, a sadness.Youve got to win that last game of the yearThe bus ride from
Ann Arbor to Columbus for a Michigan-Ohio State game is always interesting.
Madej remembers rocks being thrown at the team bus, and one year a stone
shattered a window. On a later trip, Madej and offensive lineman Jeff Backus
decided to count how many middle fingers they saw aimed at them from Ohio State
fans.We stopped counting when it got over triple digits, Madej said.The 2006
trip, though, brought a different feel. For one, former Michigan quarterback
Chad Henne recalls, there was a TV news helicopter following the bus all the way
down U.S. 23. Fans lined the sides of the highway and overpasses with banners
cheering the team on. Even Buckeyes fans held signs of support for Schembechler,
who after all was from Barbeton, Ohio, and got his coaching start at Ohio State.
With Michigans help, the Buckeyes put together a pregame tribute to
Schembechler, followed by a moment of silence.The reception we got was amazing,
Hall said.A spot in the BCS title game was on the line, but Tressel didnt talk
about that all week with his team. He remembered the 2003 Michigan game, when
the defending national champion Buckeyes, ranked No. 2 in the BCS standings,
lost their chance to repeat when they fell to the Wolverines. Tressel thought
they had focused too much on the bigger picture before that loss.We didnt make
that mistake the rest of the time we were there, he said. So really in 2006, we
didnt talk about the championship game at all. We talked about the Ohio
State-Michigan game.The Wolverines and the Buckeyes had two of the best defenses
in the country that season, and their games over the years were known for being
low-scoring, physical affairs. The first signs that things would be different
this time came early, as both teams marched for touchdowns on their opening
possessions.The Buckeyes took a 14-point lead in the second quarter on a trick
play. Wideout Ted Ginn Jr. lined up as a tight end on second-and-inches and
streaked free for a touchdown pass after a fake handoff.We had worked on that
play all year and we had never run it, Datish said. I remember when that play
call came in, I thought, I guess thats why we put that thing in.Michigan
answered every big Ohio State play and cut the lead to four points twice in the
third quarter. The Buckeyes, though, had Troy Smith.Smith had been nursing a
sore thumb for a few weeks and didnt play well the previous week against
Illinois. Against Michigan, he threw for 316 yards and four touchdowns, wrapping
up the Heisman in the process. Tressel recalled Smiths performance as one for
the ages.I was able to channel some of my teammates energy and their vigor in
wanting to get the game going, Smith said. I used that to block out whatever I
was going to think about my thumb.Michigan looked to have gotten a crucial
third-down stop in the fourth quarter, but Shawn Crable was called for a
helmet-to-helmet hit on Smith as the quarterback ran out of bounds. The penalty
gave Ohio State a first down, and theyd go on to score for a 42-31 lead.The
Wolverines would score again, but the onside kick failed and Ohio State ran out
the clock.We all had a sick feeling in our stomach, knowing we had let an
opportunity slip away, Rivas said. I had a sour, disgusted taste in my
mouth.Ohio State fans jubilantly rushed onto the field, many of them like Davis
taking chunks of grass home as mementos. The school switched to synthetic Field
Turf before the 2007 season.It was an amazing sight, said Malcolm Jenkins, an
Ohio State DB now with the?Philadelphia Eagles. Fans literally tore up square
footage of grass, threw them over their shoulders and walked out of the stadium.
It was a magical day.How magical? The numbers 4-2-3-9 -- the same as the final
score -- were drawn in the Ohio Lotterys Pick 4 game that evening. The Buckeyes
were going to the national title game. Even more important, to them, they had
beaten their rival.Whenever you get a chance to play in a national championship,
its always cool and fine and dandy, Smith said. But Im from Ohio. If you want to
feel safe around these parts, youd better pull out all of your tricks for that
game, because its pretty important. Youve got to win that last game of the
year.But should that have been the last Ohio State-Michigan game that
season?Ohio State and Michigan were thisclose to a rematchTalk of a potential
rematch began soon after the final horn. Recent precedent existed. Florida State
beat Florida in its 1996 regular-season finale, and then the Gators got a
rematch and downed the Seminoles 52-20 in the Sugar Bowl for the national title.
Five years after the 2006 game, LSU and Alabama would stage a second meeting in
the BCS championship game.Michigan had an argument, having lost to the No. 1
team on the road by three points. But neither Carr nor the Big Ten publicly
lobbied for the Wolverines.There was a system in place, Delany said. That would
have been a mindless waste of energy, I would think.Urban Meyer had no such
qualms. The day after the Michigan-Ohio State game, the then-Florida coach
called the idea of a rematch unfair and said, If they do that, we should go to a
playoff next year.Urban Meyer, he campaigned pretty much, Henne said. Coach
Carrs a traditionalist and he did it his way. Thats the only thing that kind of
bugged me, that we kind of sat back and let it go on and we got pushed out.Back
in 2006, the Big Ten still finished its schedule before Thanksgiving week and
did not have a championship game. Michigans season was over a full two weeks
before Florida bolstered its case by beating Arkansas in the SEC title game.
That lag was one of the reasons the Big Ten eventually extended its season past
Thanksgiving and expanded to form divisions and a title game, said Ohio State
athletic director Gene Smith.It was hard to break away from that tradition, but
I think its better for our league, Smith said. We needed to have a presence in
that same window of time.In the end, the Gators edged out Michigan for the No. 2
spot by 0.0101 points in the BCS formula.Florida was a good team but it was kind
of like, well, we probably deserved it, Henne said. But we had our one
opportunity and we lost.Ohio State players had no interest in playing Michigan
again.That game went down to the wire, Jenkins said. It was emotionally
draining, and it would be hard to get another game to replicate that.I dont
think the fans or anyone wanted to see that, Patterson said. But looking back,
maybe that would have worked out better for us.The BCS system was vindicated
when Florida clobbered Ohio State 41-14 in the title game and Michigan lost by
two touchdowns to USC in the Rose Bowl. That also would begin the decline of the
Big Ten as a whole and signal the ascendance of SEC dominance. The Buckeyes
would lose again in the 2007 BCS title game, to LSU, and the Big Ten went
through a national championship drought until Ohio State won it all in the 2014
season.Michigan, meanwhile, took nearly a decade to fully recover. The Ohio
State game was the first of four straight losses, as the Wolverines were
stunningly upset by Appalachian State to open 2007 and then fell to Oregon. Carr
resigned after that season, and the program then wandered the wilderness under
Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke until favorite son Jim Harbaugh came home.Can any
game ever top The Game from 2006?There are significant differences between this
years game and 2006 because of the playoff and Big Ten divisional system. Both
teams have a loss this time around, and its highly unlikely anyone will call for
a rematch.Still, the echoes are there.You have two iconic head coaches and
unbelievable talent on both teams, Gene Smith said. The fandom will probably be
the same, at the highest level, and the demand for tickets will be the same. As
far as the game itself, the magnitude will be very similar.You cant get more
electric than The Game, Tressel said. This week will probably be 2 against 3.
You cant get much bigger than that. It will be a special day.John Davis will be
there again. While he wont be taking any of the playing surface home this time,
Davis is hoping The Game he witnesses in 2016 lives up to the one in 2006. We
all are.Without a doubt, looking back now, that game was in line with the hype,
Rivas said of the 2006 classic. It was all that and then some.Michael DiRocco,
Tim McManus,?Jordan Raanan and?Adam Rittenberg contributed to this story.
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Sunday. ATLANTA -- The Braves placed ace Julio Teheran on the 15-day disabled
list Tuesday because of a strained right lat muscle.He was injured during a
four-inning start July 22 at Colorado. The 25-year-old waited eight days before
his next start, then allowed five hits, three runs and one walk in five innings
in a 9-5 loss to Philadelphia.After the game, Teheran said he felt fine, but his
soreness got worse Sunday and Monday.The two-time All-Star is on the DL for the
first time in his six-year career.I feel kind of weird about it, Teheran said
before Tuesdays game against Pittsburgh. Im trying to get the good part of it
and come back and finish the rest of the season.ddddddddddddInterim manager
Brian Snitker said after the game that Teheran looked unusually fatigued. His
fastball velocity dropped to the high 80s.On Tuesday, Snitker said Teheran has
been prescribed rest. Barring a setback, the right-hander will likely make a
rehab start before returning in a couple weeks.Teheran ranks sixth in the NL
with a .205 opponents batting average. His 2.81 ERA ranks 10th. He is winless in
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