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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan and Ohio State are two programs that hate each other, with significantly different cultures and styles.
Yet, are they really all that different?
In some ways, yes — dramatically. That’s reflected to some degree in the recent record, with Ohio State having dominated the rivalry going back to 2004, as Michigan has but one win since then. But the Wolverines also had a 10-2-1 record during the Jon Cooper era, so these things can be cyclical.
But when it comes down to it, there’s a lot of similarities when it comes to motivational tactics.
No, Michigan isn’t in the business of crossing out all the Os on campus, like Ohio State does with the Ms, but it’s certainly passé to wear the colors of the other school on campus.
On Tuesday, a player from each team spoke about when they learned the hard way about wearing the rival’s colors while in their respective city of choice.
Michigan defensive end Kwity Paye
For the junior Michigan defensive end from Rhode Island, he didn’t know much about the rivalry, as the Wolverines weren’t really on his radar until defensive coordinator Don Brown offered late. So his indoctrination came after he enrolled.
He didn’t really get to know or understand the rivalry until The Game actually came, but he learned an important lesson earlier in the season.
“My freshman year, we were doing a walk-through at (Schembechler Hall) and I came in and I was wearing a long red long sleeve,” Paye said. “And we were doing our walkthrough, and they were just looking at me. Everyone was staring at me. And I had to take the long sleeve off and I did the walkthrough shirtless.”
As Paye tells it, first former star Rashan Gary came up to him and told him that wasn’t the right color to be wearing in that building. When Chase Winovich also said the same thing, he knew he had made a huge mistake.
Ohio State offensive guard Wyatt Davis
For Davis, the Bellflower, California native, it was during a recruiting trip that he learned that blue wasn’t exactly a welcome color in Columbus.
Davis was considering Michigan, but chose the Buckeyes relatively early in the process. When he was on a recruiting trip visiting Ohio State during the summer, he came dressed in blue.
As we said, he learned the hard way that that’s not a welcome color there on campus.
“Before I got here, I never understood the rivalry but I was wearing like a blue tank top in the facility and one of the hosts was like, you have a jacket or anything you take that off because, you know you’re not allowed to wear blue,” Davis said. “And I’m just kind of sitting there like, well, it’s like 100 degrees down the summer. I got a full jacket on but I did and then after, I guess word got to Coach Meyer, and I had the jacket on. He unzipped it and he was like, do you have that ugly color on? And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, well, yeah, I definitely won’t do that again.’
“But now that made me realize that, you know, this is this is real. This is — you know — it’s very historic and we take that very serious around here.”
So while the programs might be entirely different in their cultures, their approaches, and their dominance over one another, one thing is for certain — they’re awfully similar in their disdain for one another.
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