Michigan All-American defensive tackle Mark Messner walked up after the game, put his arm around Ohio State quarterback Greg Frey and made a simple query.

"He wanted to know what we said at halftime," Frey said. "I told him not much. We just went in, thought about it, and realized what we had to do."

What the Buckeyes did was put on a show, albeit a tragedy in final analysis. They rallied from a 20-0 halftime deficit. They took the lead twice in the fourth quarter, only to succumb 34-31 to the Rose Bowl-bound Wolverines yesterday in Ohio Stadium.

If they could have nailed down Michigan wide receiver John Kolesar in the final moments, it might have been different.

"John Kolesar's big plays won it for us," said Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, whose team (7-2-1, 7-0-1) clinched the outright Big Ten championship. "He's a gamebreaker."

After the Buckeyes had taken a 31-27 lead with 2:02 left on Bill Matlock's 16-yard run, Kolesar returned the ensuing kickoff 59 yards to the OSU 41.

Two plays later, the senior from Westlake, Ohio fended off defensive back David Brown and hauled in a 41-yard touchdown pass from Demetrius Brown with 1:39 remaining for the win.

Yet at that point the emotion on the Ohio State sideline was far from depression, Frey said.

"It doesn't matter how far we had to go," Frey said, "I didn't think they were going to stop us. I thought we were going to go back out there and score again."

With good reason. The Buckeyes (4-6-1, 2-5-1), who had been pathetic offensively in the first half, had scored on their previous five possessions in the second. They had 353 yards total offense in the second half against the Big Ten's top-ranked defense.

Starting on their own 29 with 1:36 left, two passes to tailback Marc Hicks moved the ball 19 yards. A fourth-down keeper around right end by Frey kept the drive going with 45 seconds left, moving the ball to the Michigan 47.

Another pass to Hicks picked up 8 and the crowd of 90,176 was rocking.

After a timeout, Frey brought the team to the line, second-and-2. With Michigan laying back in a prevent zone, he faded and wanted to throw to split end Jeff Graham on a deep crossing pattern.

But Messner and Alex Marshall hit Frey in the backfield, just as he tried to flip a pass to Hicks.

It was errant, Michigan inside linebacker Marc Spencer made a diving interception, and with 29 seconds left the game was over.

Except for the final score, there was no doubt that it had been a Michigan-Ohio State game, the 85th renewal. There were bad plays, big plays, and great plays. And there were comebacks by both teams.

The teams combined for 968 yards total offense-- Michigan 499, OSU 469.

A 57-yard pass from Brown to Greg McMurtry with 1:06 left in the first quarter gave the Wolverines a 10-0 lead, going with the 22-yard field goal earlier by Mike Gillette.

Michigan then turned a Carlos Snow fumble at the OSU 18 into an 18-yard touchdown run by Hoard, and Gillette kicked a 56-yard field goal on the last play of the half to increase the margin.

The scene was gloomy in the Ohio State offensive meeting room at halftime. But despite Frey's response to Messner, something was said, by senior center and co-captain Jeff Uhlenhake.

"I looked around and saw everyone was pretty depressed," Uhlenhake said, "I've been around enough games when we've come back, like last week against Iowa, my freshman year when we were down 24-0 against Illinois and came back and won.

"I've been around and I've seen what can happen, but I knew our young players had to be depressed. This is Michigan, the biggest game of the year, and we were emotionally high at the beginning which may have hurt us. So I just turned around to the guys and said 'Let's clam down. This is Michigan. It's supposed to be a fun game. Let's go out and have some fun.'"

The Buckeyes took the opening kickoff and marched 70 yards in seven plays. Snow carried four times for 57, including the final 4 for the touchdown.

"It was the spark we needed," said Snow, on the way to his best rushing game as a Buckeye, 170 yards on 25 carries.

The defense corraled Michigan on its next series, Gillette's 51-yard field goal attempt hitting the crossbar and bouncing down.

Frey then directed an eight-play, 66-yard TD drive, with Matlock bulling the final 9 on a quick trap behind senior guard Greg Zackeroff.

Again Michigan flounered. The Buckeyes took over on their 10, a 27-yard pass to Bobby Olive getting them out of the hole. Snow and fullback Scottie Graham moved it to the Michigan 14 before Olive made a diving catch at the goal line for the TD.

With 11:26 left in the game, the Buckeyes had taken the lead on Pat O'Morrow's extra point.

Moments later, after Mike Sullivan recovered a Boles fumble on the Michigan 22, O'Morrow kicked a 21-yard field goal to up the lead to 24-20.

Michigan finally awakened, and retaliated with a 76-yard TD drive, Hoard scoring for the second time. It was 27-24 with 4:20 left.
 
After a clip on the kickoff, the Buckeyes started at their 9.

When Messner was penalized for hitting Frey away from the play on the opening 8-yard run by Snow, the Buckeyes again were out of the hole.

A 17-yard screen pass to Jeff Ellis and a 22-yard throwback screen to Snow moved them into Michigan territory, Three plays later, Matlock powered behind Uhlenhake and tackle Tim Moxley for the 16-yard score. There was dancing in the aisles.

Kolesar put a stop to that. Yet he had been eyewitness to the OSU rally.

"They are going to be dangerous," he said. "Watch out next year."