Hail to the Victors

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - They lost one of the nation's best players on his first play from scrimmage. They were beaten in the turnover battle. Their special teams, usually their greatest strength, played miserably.

And none of that mattered. In the biggest game of the year, the Buckeyes refused to lose.

Trailing by nine with a little more than seven minutes left, junior quarterback Troy Smith further cemented his name in Buckeye lore, directing two long touchdown drives to lead No. 9 OSU over No. 17 Michigan 25-21.

It was the final one that will no doubt go down as one of the greatest drives in one of the rivalry's best games. A composed Smith connected on 7 of 8 throws - none bigger than his 26-yard strike to a leaping Anthony Gonzalez at the Michigan four - in leading OSU 85 yards to the Wolverines 3-yard line, setting up the winning 3-yard dash from sophomore tailback Antonio Pittman with just 24 seconds left.

"It was something magical," junior safety Donte Whitner said of his team's 67- and 88-yard fourth-quarter drives. "Usually when you see offenses go into the fourth quarter when they've got to get the ball in the end zone, teams will choke at that time. But these guys handled the pressure and I knew it was going to happen."

The win - the Buckeyes' fourth against the team up north in the last five years - gave OSU (9-2, 7-1 Big Ten) a share of the conference title with Penn State and an inside track to a Bowl Championship Series berth.

As the Buckeyes wildly celebrated at midfield, Michigan's band launched into a chorus of the school's fight song, "Hail to the Victors." Unfortunately for a stunned crowd of 111,591, the fourth largest in Michigan Stadium history, it was the scarlet and gray being hailed.

Even coach Jim Tressel, who seemingly never loses sight of the big picture, lost himself in the game's aftermath.

"I had forgotten about the Big Ten championship stuff, then all of a sudden you had someone hand you a hat and bringing you a trophy and you think, 'Wow, that wasn't even what we were out there playing for," Tressel said. "We were out there playing the Wolverines. That was enough."

Barely enough, though the afternoon began well enough for the Buckeyes.

After a fiery pregame speech from 1995 Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George that preached the game's significance, OSU quickly took the opening possession 80 yards downfield. Smith's 4-yard jaunt into the end zone put the Buckeyes ahead 6-0, but senior kicker Josh Huston's first missed extra point of the season only headed a long list of key Buckeye gaffes that allowed an overmatched Wolverines (7-4, 5-3 Big Ten) team to stay in the game.

Playing without their emotional leader on defense after senior linebacker Bobby Carpenter broke his right ankle on OSU's first defensive play, the Buckeyes held Michigan to just 255 yards of total offense and only 32 yards rushing.

And on the other side, OSU was able to consistently move the ball on the arm of Smith. Outdoing his breakout performance against the maize and blue a year ago, Smith tossed for a career-high 300 yards and a score on 27 of 37 passing.

But one fact tells the story. Until a fourth-quarter field goal drive to put them ahead 21-12, the Wolverines had not started a scoring drive from beyond OSU's 37-yard line. Following the game, Tressel was able to joke about the team's carelessness with the ball.

"I told the guys in the locker room that they broke one of my truisms," Tressel said. "I tell them we can't win this game if we turn it over."

They did though, and for awhile, it appeared to be the Buckeyes' undoing.

Ahead 9-0 in the second quarter and with all the momentum, freshman tailback Maurice Wells fumbled away his first and last carry at the Buckeyes' 36. Nine plays and a 2-yard touchdown strike from sophomore quarterback Chad Henne to senior wideout Jason Avant later, Michigan was down by only two.

OSU was not done there. A third quarter fumble by Smith at his own 20 set up a Michigan field goal. Freshman punter A.J. Trapasso followed later in the quarter with a 18-yard punt to the OSU 37 that set up Michigan's go-ahead touchdown to make it 18-12. And on a special teams unit that had already seen sophomore receiver Ted Ginn Jr. muff two punts (OSU recovered both), Huston shot a 46-yard field-goal attempt wide right in the fourth quarter.

With Smith under center, though, none of it mattered in the end. Evading a strong Michigan pass rush and finding just enough room to throw, Smith was indeed "magical" on the final two drives.

It began with Smith's 14-yard first-down dash on third-and-10, continued with his precise 26-yard touchdown strike to junior wideout Santonio Holmes across the middle to cut the deficit to two and finished with the 26-yard connection with Gonzalez on the final drive.

"It's a great feeling knowing that you have a leader and quarterback willing to sacrifice everything he has to come out with a victory," Holmes said. "You could not ask for more."

It was a different tune on the other side.

"In the end, Troy Smith made too many plays," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "We lost to a great football team today. I'm not disappointed in the guys we have; I thought they played with great effort ... but there's nothing that can make you feel better after losing this game."

After everything OSU has gone through this season, it was a game that senior guard Rob Sims called the biggest win of his Buckeye career.

"Our guys just kept playing," Tressel said. "We didn't add up all those little problems that we were having, we just kept fighting. I'm so awfully proud of them."

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