2025: Ohio State 27, Michigan 9

Reggie discusses the 2025 drubbing of the Wolverines (27-9), the Michigan tradition of failing upward, and professional troll Dave Portnoy's easily disproven hot take on the historical record of Michigan football.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Scarlet and Graying. I am Reggie, your host, a shall we say, seasoned Buckeye fan. This is my second episode, and what topic could be more fun to talk about for a podcast about Ohio State football than Wolverine losers? And when we talk about Wolverine losers, there are a lot to choose from. We'll talk about several of them. Let's start with the football team. The 2025 Michigan Wolverines were losers. A Charm and Soft schedule contributed to the illusion that Michigan could have been better than they were. After all, they went into the game at 9-2 with only one conference loss, which meant that had they beaten Ohio State, they would have bumped Ohio State out of the conference championship game. But it was all a mirage. Michigan had one solid win in 2025, dominating the Washington Huskies in the big outhouse in mid-October. They were dominated at Oklahoma in week two and manhandled by USC the week before they beat the Huskies, but they managed to avoid Oregon, Indiana, Penn State, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota on their schedule. My favorite part going into the game was this. Five-star all-world quarterback Bryce Underwood declared to the world that Ohio State has, quote, never seen a freshman like me, unquote, and that it was, quote, over for Ohio State, unquote. To give credit where it's due, Bryce Underwood didn't just talk the talk. He backed it up by completing 44% of his passes for a total of 63 yards. Now, to be fair, one year prior, Michigan's quarterback threw for 62 yards against Ohio State and won, so Underwood probably figured his 63 should be enough. In the end, Bryce was right when he said it was over for Ohio State, assuming he was referring to the four-game aberration of a losing streak to Michigan, which hadn't happened in over 30 years. Ohio State destroyed the Bolverines. Julian Saiyan overcame an early interception that undoubtedly made all of us a bit nervous, but ended up 19 for 26 for 233 yards despite the elements. That included a ballsy fourth and five for OSU's first touchdown to take the lead for good. Another touchdown to Brandon Ennis before the half to put us up eight, and a 50-yard bomb to Carnell Tate in the third quarter. Bo Jackson carried 22 times for 117 yards, and overall Ohio State ran for 186 yards. OSU outgained Michigan in total yards 419 to 163. Ouch. We doubled them up in time of possession, mainly by running the ball down their throats in the second half. The offensive line played one of its best games of the season, not surrendering any sacks. The defense kept Michigan out of the end zone. The first time a Michigan team didn't score a touchdown against Ohio State since 2007 under Jim Trussell. Bottom line, Michigan was overmatched, outphysicled, outmanned. They were just soft. The more it started to snow, the tougher conditions got, the more they folded. I'm sure it didn't help that Schrodemoore spent halftime trying to hook up with an OnlyFans model or whatever it was he was doing. Whatever it was, it wasn't coaching. It was a great day. As expected, Michigan gathered at midfield to protect the block M after the game, suddenly trying to be tough after Ohio State stomped all over the block M, crossing midfield time after time. Even Brutus X'ed out the M in the end zone as it snowed harder. And of course, no sooner had Ohio State destroyed the Wolverweenies than head coach Sharone Moore completely lost his mind. Despite the fact that nearly everyone on Michigan's campus claimed they knew all about his cheating on his wife with a Michigan staffer. Oddly enough, no one said a word or did anything about it until he lost the game. Michigan man Ward Manuel said he'd asked him about it. I mean, what do you want the guy to do when Shroan Moore lies to his face like that? You don't expect him to actually look into it, do you? After he got fired, Shronmoore went to the woman's place, broke in, and threatened to kill himself with a butter knife, telling the woman that his death will be on her hands. Schroen Moore spent some time in a Michigan jail. He ultimately pled guilty to a lesser offense and didn't get any more jail time. If you go back to the end of the Beau Schembeckler era, it's good to see that Michigan men have brought back getting fired for being douchebags. For those of you old enough, Gary Moeller, the coach who replaced Beau, was fired after being drunk and disorderly in public. Then you had three coaches in a row whose only indignity was the old-fashioned kind of coaching failure. Not winning enough games, not beating your rival often enough. Lloyd Carr, Richrod, and Brady Hoke suffered those fates. Now Harbaugh and Sherron Moore leave after bringing humiliation and disgrace to the program. We'll get into this as we start to talk about 2026, but that's one thing I don't see Kyle Whittingham bringing to Ann Arbor. The Urban Meyer disciple will restore some dignity to that program, I think. Not that I want him to, but I think he will. There's been no indication throughout his career that he's been anything other than a stand-up guy who does things the right way. Michigan got very, very lucky in obtaining a coach of Whittingham's caliber after all the other coaches on their wish list said no thanks. Failing upward is a hallmark at the University of Michigan. It's part of their mystique, and it's part of the reason they have such ingrained institutional arrogance, because no matter how awful their behavior or how much they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar, they just pretend like none of it ever happened and carry on. Just look at their basketball program. Juwan Howard embarrassed himself and the university time and time again, and they had no problem with it. But once he lost more games than they'd lost in 30 years, they finally let him go. Now, just two years later, Dusty May led them to their first national title in 37 years, and the second in their history. Failing upward. Scandal in their toxic hockey program, fire the coach, and they made it to the frozen four, failing upward. Of course, they were the number one seed and were stacked with NHL talent, but like in all sports, that guarantees nothing. The point is they turned scandal and embarrassment into athletic success. Just go down the list, the Robert Anderson sex abuse scandal, like Larry Nasser and Michigan State and Ohio State's own similar scandal. Robert Anderson was a doctor who performed unforgivable abuse. Well, except for Bo Schembeckler, who not only forgave him, but fought for him to keep his job and helped cover the whole thing up. Even when it came out that Bo Schembeckler's own son was abused by the guy, remember what you heard from so many of those Michigan men? Well, he was his adopted son. That cracked me up as someone who was adopted. I guess it's okay to abuse adopted kids. Jim Harbaugh hired Bo's real son, Glenn Shemi Schembeckler, because Harbaugh threw his former teammates under the bus by defending Bo and the sex abuse scandal. Turns out little Bo, the real son, was, well, is, a white supremacist. Anyway, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but you get the picture. Let's move on to another Wolverine loser, the biggest Michigan troll since Desmond Howard, maze in blue douchebag Dave Portnoy. Portnoy founded Barstool Sports. I think he called it that because every time I hear him speak, it sounds like he just fell off a bar stool, staggeringly drunk. Turns out he's not always drunk. Sometimes he's just stupid. Let's just focus on this hot take from Dave Portnoy. Like Michigan, we don't play for nine and threes. That's not what we do in Ann Arbor. Yeah, you heard that right. Dave Portnoy actually had the guts to say that Michigan doesn't play for nine and three. That's just not what we do. Yeah, right. What so many Wolverine losers have yet to grasp is that there are pesky things in life that the rest of us refer to as facts, or cumulatively, one might call it data. The biggest threat to the mystique of any Michigan man is reality, so let's lay out the reality behind the claim. For Michigan, losing three or more games is the norm. How normal is it? It's this normal. Even in the 2020s, our current decade, which includes the most successful three-year run in program history, in my opinion, they've lost four or more games in half the decade so far, losing four in 2020, five in 2024, and four in 2025. We don't need to go into the asterisks behind 2021, 2022, 2023. Michigan has lost at least three games in 15 of the past 19 years. That's a generation. Michigan has lost three more games in 26 of the last 33 years. Now we're approaching two generations, 33 of 47 years, or two-thirds of the seasons going back to 1978. Now, I will grant you that in the 1970s, Michigan didn't lose three games in a season very often. In fact, in the entire decade, they only lost three or more games once. The 1970s were the last decade in which Michigan didn't lose at least three games in half the decade. They lost at least three games and five of their ten seasons in the 80s, seven of ten seasons in the 90s, nine of ten seasons in the 2000s, and nine of their ten seasons in the 2010s. Now, Michigan fans can cling to that. See, you're ignoring how dominant Michigan was through the 1970s. Well, not really. They lost at least three games and eight of ten seasons in the 60s and eight of ten seasons in the 1950s. I grant you Demazin Blue had a very good 1940s. But the thing is, according to the internet, Dave the troll Portnoy was born in 1977. During Dave Portnoy's life, 33 times out of the 49 college football seasons he's been alive for, Michigan has lost three or more games in a season. Twenty-two times Michigan has lost four or more games. Over that stretch, Michigan has had four losing seasons. Don't get me wrong, that's amazing. Only four losing seasons since 1977 shows remarkable consistency. Ohio State has had two, by the way. Alabama has had five, and they've been the gold standard of the sport. Georgia's had five, USC's had five, LSU has had eleven. You get the picture. Michigan has been remarkably consistent and it has a long history of sustained excellence. That's what makes this rivalry what it is. A three-loss season doesn't mean you suck. Quite the contrary. If Dave Portnoy had made any of these arguments, I'd have no issue, no reason to say a word. I'm one of the first to acknowledge that Michigan is a true blue blood of the sport we love, and the sport as a whole and our rivalry in particular wouldn't mean nearly as much if they weren't so consistently good. The most charitable take I can offer, though, is that I guess it's okay to say that Michigan doesn't play for 9-3. They just end up there a lot. Also, a quick note in the 1970s, the Big Ten was referred to as the Big Two and Little Eight during those days. It was Michigan, Ohio State, and the rest of the conference. The 70s were also when most teams went to an 11-game regular season. 75 was also the first year that the Big Ten allowed teams other than the conference champion to play in a bowl game. Michigan played in the Orange Bowl that year and lost it, of course. You can't even compare college football and how hard it was to avoid losing three games in a season in the 1970s to today's era. So, yes, Michigan does play to go 9-3 all the time. That's a good season in Ann Arbor. It's a good season almost everywhere. Let's be real. College football's a tough game. I don't take this era of Ohio State football for granted at all. They used to call Earl Bruce old 9-3. The Cooper era ended with three or more losses and nine of his 13 years. Most teams would kill to consistently go 9-3. Michigan has the most total wins in the sport. Obviously, they've been successful over a very long period of time. The same is true for Ohio State. But if Dave Portnoy wants to create a fantasy land in his head, he should keep it to himself because his hot take is pretty easily disproven. Even more to the point, though, here's another hot take from Dave Portnoy via tweet. At Michigan, if you're going to have an affair with a staffer, you better beat Ohio State and make the playoffs. That's the Michigan standard. Hashtag go blue. I cannot disagree. That is clearly the Michigan standard. And that's really the point to this episode. Our 2025 season didn't end the way we wanted it to, but the regular season did. Ended exactly how we wanted it to, curb stomping a soft as could be Michigan team that just could not man up when the time came. They didn't want to play in the snow in the cold. Michigan tried to be tough guys after the game as Ohio State players completely ignored them and celebrated with the fans in the stands. It was an awesome spectacle. Add to that, Sharone Moore further humiliating the university. At least it spared him what would have been his third suspension to open the 2026 season. So at least he got by with only being suspended twice during his tenure as head coach, which lasted two years. So one suspension a year, doing pretty good for a Michigan coach. And then, of course, Dave Portnoy's delusional hot take. We talked about the concept of failing upward, which is a Michigan hallmark. But now it's 2026 and it's a whole new era. Kyle Whittingham brought with him many of his best players from Utah and Ohio State, as we know, will be loaded for the 2026 season as well. Or should I say, reloaded. It's going to be a fun season. It's going to be a fun year. And I can't wait to keep talking to all of you about it. Until then, go Bucks.