There was a time not long ago when Michigan football came within inches of toppling Ohio State and challenging its rival’s dominance over the Big Ten.
Back then, former Wolverines tight end Jake Butt remembered saying, “Are we one player away? Are we one play-call away? Are we one break away? What’s really the difference?”
It seemed that close, with the thinnest of margins separating two tradition-rich programs.
Had J.T. Barrett been ruled short of the first-down marker four years ago in that second overtime, the Wolverines would have prevailed and the Big Ten’s future may have been altered.
Maybe Ohio State wouldn’t have established its supremacy over its conference.
Perhaps the Buckeyes would have been unable to maintain and then enhance the juggernaut they’ve assembled.
It’s the thought Michigan alumni and fans were left to contemplate as Ohio State battled Clemson in the College Football Playoff on Friday.
In an age when this sport is ruled by an aristocracy of five or six Power Five blue bloods, Ohio State’s journey to this point seemed preordained. With COVID-19 surfacing as an obstructive force, the Big Ten cleared the path for the Buckeyes by waiving its six-game requirement so they’d have an opportunity to claim its fourth consecutive league title, which they did.
As it rolled through its abridged schedule with an unblemished record, Ohio State proved it was worthy of competing on this stage because it is loaded with the kind of NFL-ready players who can stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Clemson and Alabama.
“We’re just different, man,” former Buckeyes receiver Austin Mack said last February at the NFL combine. “We’re built different.”
Earlier this month, Ohio State secured 21 new players in a signing class ranked second in the country. The nation’s best receiver, running back and offensive guard picked the Buckeyes along with two other five-star prospects.
As the new recruiting cycle begins, Ohio State is already lapping its competition in the Big Ten. The top-rated player in the 2022 class, quarterback Quinn Ewers, has committed to spend his college years in Columbus. So has Caleb Burton, who will enter his senior year of high school as the No. 2 wideout in the country.
The growing stockpile of talent could elevate the Buckeyes to an even higher plane, which is a demoralizing possibility for the rest of the teams in their conference.
“They have had a lot of success not just recruiting good college players but recruiting guys who go onto the NFL and become the top at their position in the NFL,” Butt told the Free Press in October.
Butt referred specifically to Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and New Orleans Saints receiver Michael Thomas, two Pro Bowlers.
In 2014, Thomas and Elliott helped lead the Buckeyes to their most recent national championship. But they were also on the field when Ohio State lost to Michigan State the following season as the Spartans sowed the seeds for their lone berth in the College Football Playoff.
To this day, MSU remains the only other Big Ten program that has been selected for the four-team tournament since the CFP replaced the Bowl Championship Series almost seven years ago. Back then, the Buckeyes were formidable but not so superior to the conference’s other heavyweights that they seemed invincible. In that era, Penn State, Wisconsin, MSU and U-M stood a chance against Ohio State.
But since the controversial spot in Columbus in 2016, the Buckeyes have been in a class by themselves, winning 31 of their last 33 games against the rest of the Big Ten.
Butt called Ohio State “the elephant in the room” at the same time he insisted that Michigan remained within striking distance of the mighty Buckeyes.
“The gap is not as large as people make it seem,” he said. “You’re right there.”
In 2016, that was true.
Yet as this new decade begins, the distance between Ohio State and everyone else in the Big Ten is as great as it has ever been. More troubling to those who long for competitive balance is the reality the Buckeyes could pull away a few more lengths in the coming seasons.
