It doesn’t take very long to find out which side of the Ohio State/Michigan football rivalry has a better mindset to get the upper hand. It is well-chronicled how much the Buckeyes work on That Team Up North to instill hatred, yet respect for Michigan. From dedicating time to the Wolverines at every practice, to a countdown clock to The Game, to putting the Block M on punching bags and other things, there’s no doubt which game is the biggest on the schedule.
That hasn’t necessarily been the case in Ann Arbor. Head coach Jim Harbaugh has embraced the rivalry and identified it as the biggest on the schedule, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of things put in place to give the Wolverines a psychological boost.
And the numbers show it.
You’ve heard the numbers. Ohio State has beaten Michigan eight straight times and won 15 of the last 16. That’s more than domination, it’s outright owning the opponent like a cheap timeshare.
So, what is Michigan doing about it? According to defensive lineman Kwity Payne, he’s working hard to install a hatred of Ohio State. While speaking with Jon Jansen on the “In the Trenches” podcast, Payne agreed that there needs to be a mindset change within the Michigan program. It’s all courtesy of our sister site Wolverines Wire.
“That’s something that we’ve talked about,” Paye said. “Some of the team leaders on the defense – just enforcing that hate a lot more. Every time I turn on that game, I feel like at times – we hate them, but I feel like we have to enforce – we have to install it like freshmen coming in, we have to install it. ‘We hate those guys.’ There can’t (be) no, ‘Oh, my boy goes to that school so I’m –’ No – hate off of that. So just enforcing that to go into their brain. Watching game tape every single day on them. Making sure that we know all of their plays. Making sure we watch past games. Just making sure we’re (prepared).
Kwity Paye: 'We have to install' hate in younger players against Ohio State https://t.co/hgPu9slgTD
— WolverinesWire (@wolverineswire) July 2, 2020
To be fair, we’ve heard a lot of this type of talk before, but if anything, there’s been regression on how prepared the Michigan team is when it plays Ohio State under Jim Harbaugh. There’s no doubt the mindset needs to change and match what’s going on in Columbus, but it’s more than that.
The folks up in Michigan — most especially Jim Harbaugh — don’t want to admit a gap in talent, but the scores, film, recruiting classes, and players being selected the NFL draft suggest otherwise.
Keep on trying Michigan. At least there’s an understanding that something needs to change. Then again, giving up 118 points over the last two seasons to your arch-rival will tend to do that.
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