The animosity and hatred of college football’s greatest rivalry was on display well before the coin toss or the Senior Day introductions.

When Ohio State and Michigan headed back to their respective locker rooms after pregame warm-ups, the teams got into a minor scrum, pushing and shoving each other as coaches from both sides tried to separate the squads.

“Two teams that hate each other, and you put them [on a football field] and obviously someone is going to be pushing each other,” senior offensive tackle Alex Boone said. “I looked over, and they were talking, so I walked over and started talking, and next thing I know everyone was kind of pulling me back.

“I wasn’t going to swing at anybody, I’m not that stupid, but I was going to let them know how I feel about them. You know me – I’m the nicest guy out there.” Boone said.

Fans erupted as the teams finally separated.

In the off-chance that the Buckeyes were not motivated enough, the verbal joust added more fuel to the fire.

“That was definitely the final straw because we had a lot of motivation going into this game and a lot of hard feelings going toward them,” junior safety Kurt Coleman said. “They shouldn’t have done that.”

The emotions carried over into the early stages of Saturday’s game.

Following Michigan junior safety Stevie Brown’s interception on Ohio State’s opening drive, freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor pushed Brown out of bounds to prevent a touchdown.

As Pryor walked away, Michigan’s Jonas Mouton knocked him to the ground.

“You can hit late in this game, you can do all kinds of things different,” Pryor said. “I was walking back and someone just [hit] me, I was just walking. I guess you can do whatever you want in this game.”

The Buckeyes gave out some hits too.

On the first defensive play, senior cornerback Malcolm Jenkins took a Michigan player hard to the ground, well after the play was over, but did not receive a penalty.

In the end, Ohio State pounded Michigan before and after the whistle during Saturday’s 42-7 blowout in the most lopsided victory for either team in the series since OSU’s 50-14 win in 1968.

“Is it possible to feel bad for Michigan when we are beating them that bad? That was a dumb question,” Boone said. “How can you feel bad for a team that you hate? We just don’t like them. One of our coaches was yelling at us that if we score we’re going for two.”

James Crepea can be reached at [email protected].