Facts about last time Ohio State lost to their rival at home

For the first time in seven years, the No. 4 Michigan Wolverines are favored in The Game, but you’ll have to go back at lot further than 2011 to find the last time that TTUN beat Ohio State in the cathedral of college football known as Ohio Stadium. The last time that the team from Ann Arbor won in Columbus was in the year 2000, just 11 months after everybody realized that worrying about Y2K was really dumb.

The Wolverines knocked off the Steve Bellisari-quarterbacked Buckeyes 38-26 on Nov. 18, 2000. Derek Combs (55 yards) was the leading rusher for Ohio State, while Anthony Thomas (the running back, not the candy store) led the way on the ground for the Wolverines with 60 yards.

Bellisari threw for 251 yards on 21-of-47 passing, and secured 1 passing TD, but threw 3 interceptions as well. Jonathan Wells had OSU’s two rushing touchdowns, while Ken-Yon Rambo caught Bellisari’s only scoring passes.

TTUN quarterback Drew Henson was an equally pedestrian 14-for-25, but went for 303 yards and 3 TDs, while throwing only one pick. The saving grace of this debacle was that 102 days after the loss, Ohio State fired head coach John Cooper, paving the way for Jim Tressel to be hired 17 days later.

The bevested coach’s hiring ushered in the nearly two decades of rivalry dominance for the Buckeyes which started with this epic pronouncement.

As a reminder of just how great we’ve had it as Buckeye fans in this rivalry for 18 years, let’s take a look back at what the world was like the last time that the Wolverines walked out of Columbus as victors.

(Editor’s Note: don’t @ me; what I type on the internet is not going to jinx anything for Ohio State.)