Make no mistake about what happened on Saturday. What felt like tremors a year ago ended up truly being a tectonic shift.
Michigan football eviscerated, embarrassed and eliminated Ohio State from everything that matters to that program. The most important things — a Big Ten championship and a College Football Playoff berth — were washed away by the hands of its most-hated nemesis. Excuses from a year ago were laid bare as all of the conditions the Buckeyes required for a win were in place.
Perfect, unseasonably warm weather? Check. Michigan without its key player? Check. No illnesses rampaging throughout the Woody Hayes Athletic Center? Check. Home game, revenge, a defense that could supposedly hamper what the Wolverines like to do? Check, check, and check.
Yet, Ohio State faltered in a big way, getting run off the newly christened Safelite-branded field, a year’s worth of promises made by the Buckeye staff broken to the eponymous nation. Only, it was the entire nation that took notice.
The national media came away astonished by Michigan’s dominance, after months of proclaiming the thing that happened last November in no way could happen again. Here are some of the best reactions by those who write about college football for a living.