Michigan 31
Ohio St. 23

Record before game

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- What a time for a lesson on the rudiments of Big Ten football.

That's what second-ranked Ohio State, at the zenith of its thought-to-be charmed season, got from old neighborhood bully Michigan yesterday. The 18th-ranked Wolverines sprang tailback Tim Biakabutuka for 313 yards rushing -- the most ever by a single back against OSU -- and smacked the Buckeyes 31-23 before 106,288 in Michigan Stadium.

Ohio State hung in there long enough to make it close, and even had a shot at tying the score on its last drive. But in the end, there was no debate as to the reason the Buckeyes (11-1, 7-1) will be spending New Year's Day in the Citrus Bowl for the second straight year rather than the Rose Bowl for the first time in 11 seasons.

"If you can't stop the running game in this league, and you can't run the football yourself, you've going to get beat," OSU coach John Cooper said. "That's what happened to us today.

"They beat us up front unmercifully. We didn't protect our quarterback. We didn't establish our running game like we had in some of the other ballgames. And we never stopped their running game."

That was pretty much it in a nutshell. Michigan (9-3, 5-3), in beating the Buckeyes in its Big House for the fourth straight time, rushed for 381 yards, the fourth-best total ever against the Buckeyes. The star of that show was Biakabutuka, a junior who carried 37 times and upstaged OSU's Heisman Trophy candidate, Eddie George (21 carries, 104 yards, one touchdown), in the regular-season finale.

Biakabutuka said it was the Michigan line that deserved the credit.

"I've been playing running back for six years, even in high school, and I've never seen holes that big," he said. "I think some of you could have run through them."

After the laughter died, he was asked whether he'd ever dreamed of such a day against the Buckeyes.

"You can't predict something like this," he said.

OSU wide receiver Terry Glenn, on the other hand, had guaranteed the Buckeyes would go to the Rose Bowl, which meant they had to beat Michigan. Instead, it was Northwestern (10-1, 8-0) -- a team the Buckeyes did not play this year -- packing last night for its first Rose trip since the 1948 season.

As for Glenn, he turned down a request to speak with reporters after the game. But Michigan players and coaches said his comments, which included Michigan was "nothing" earlier in the week, worked in their favor.

"I certainly don't think it hurt us," first-year Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said.

It marked the sixth straight time a Michigan head coach had won in his first shot at The Game. It also marked the sixth time Cooper has dealt with a loss to the Wolverines in his eight years at Ohio State.

From the start, Michigan lined up more often than not in a one-back, two-tight end, two-wide receiver set and simply gave the ball to Biakabutuka. What he did next was upto him. By his sixth carry he had 107 yards, and had taken the Wolverines most of the way to a Brian Griese 4-yard touchdown pass to backup tailback Clarence Williams at 5:34 of the first quarter.

Ohio State had settled for a 37-yard field goal from Josh Jackson on its previous possession, and the die was cast as Michigan took the 7-3 lead. Jackson would go on to kick two more field goals, and Michigan scored touchdowns on every scoring thrust but one.

"When you settle for field goals instead of touchdowns against a team as hot as they were today, you're going to get beat," Cooper said.

Still, it was only 10-9 Michigan at the half. And the Buckeyes got the ball to start the second half. They didn't have it for long.

Quarterback Bob Hoying underthrew Glenn down the left sideline, and freshman cornerback Charles Woodson -- Ohio's Mr. Football last year from Fremont -- made a leaping interception at the OSU 49.

Eight plays later, Griese, who'd thrown two interceptions to end the first half, sneaked 2 yards for the TD for a 17-9 lead after Biakabutuka had taken Michigan most of the way. Five straight plays he lined up in a one-back set, and the Wolverines rolled.

It was a spread set that had worked well for Boston College and Washington against the Buckeyes earlier in the year. Michigan simply ran it with better personnel, and OSU middle linebacker Greg Bellisari, for one, said he approached it timidly.

"It's kind of hard to play against that scheme; it's a tough scheme, a good scheme," Bellisari said. "But I think the key is not to be timid. You've got to be aggressive and go ahead and attack holes and make him do something."

It was defensive end Mike Vrabel who did something with 2:26 left in the third quarter. He dropped into coverage and picked off a Griese pass, returning it to the Michigan 27.

After a 27-yard pass to tight end Rickey Dudley to the 1-yard line, George -- he wound up with 104 yards rushing and 50 yards receiving -- dived the final yard for the TD. He couldn't punch it in on the two-point try that followed, though, and OSU trailed 17-15.

Michigan turned back to Biakabutuka as the quarter turned, and he was the engine on a 65-yard march to another TD, an 8-yard run by Williams with 13:04 left. It was 24-15.

Two Michigan possessions later, after the Wolverines stuffed the OSU offense, Biakabutuka finally found the end zone on a 2-yard run. It proved to be the decisive moment.

Because Ohio State, in a hurry-up mode, sped 75 yards in seven plays, capped by a 19-yard TD pass to Buster Tillman with 6:33 left. Hoying then passed to George for the two-point conversion, and the Buckeyes had cut the lead to 31-23.

They didn't get the ball back until 2:01 remained, after what turned out to be nine-play, 17-yard, clock-eating possession by Michigan. After starting from their 37, the Buckeyes converted on a fourth-and-7 to keep the last-ditch drive going but failed on a fourth-and-10 from the Michigan 34.

Hoying -- who threw for 286 yards, completing 22 of 45 passes, with two interceptions -- tried to gun the ball to Glenn on a curl. It was high, though, and Woodson grabbed his second interception with 48 seconds left.

The Michigan bench erupted, and the OSU sideline sort of imploded. Suddenly, the entire game was replaying in the minds of the Buckeyes.

"We missed some opportunities, dropped some balls, we failed on some (pass) protections, we didn't tackle," George said. "Those things catch up with you. You just can't do things like against a team like Michigan. You have to take every opportunity in hand and go with it."