By Tim May
Dispatch Sports Reporter
Nov. 21, 1999

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- This time, it wasn't a question of heart, or effort, or emotion.

As the wacky Ohio State football team exited the 1999 season with a 24-17 loss to rival Michigan yesterday in Michigan Stadium, it was a matter of learning yet another hard lesson. Great effort alone is seldom enough to win the Michigan game.

"The team that makes the fewest mistakes usually wins the game," OSU coach John Cooper said.

Three turnovers in the second half -- two interceptions thrown by quarterback Steve Bellisari and a lost fumble by receiver Vanness Provitt -- and 12 penalties to one for Michigan helped usher the Buckeyes (6-6, 3-5) to the loss column again.

They ended the season on a three-game losing streak -- the first three-game skid since Cooper's first season in 1988-- and the six losses are the most by OSU since the '88 team finished 4-6-1. And because the Buckeyes didn't finish with a winning record, they aren't eligible to go to a bowl, stopping a streak of 10 straight trips.

For many of the players, it was tough coming to grips with all of that, considering the effort they'd put in yesterday. It was a surprising effort, coming on the heels of a pathetic 46-20 loss to heavy underdog Illinois the week before.

"We had motivation from last week," Bellisari said. "We got embarrassed. We had something to prove."

From the start, they played like it. Bellisari tossed short touchdown passes to tight end Kevin Houser and fullback Jamar Martin in the first half, and OSU took a 14-7 lead to the locker room.

"We knew coming into this game that we were a good football team, and that if we come out and hit them in the mouth from the get-go we were going to get points on the board," Bellisari said. "And that's what we did. We weren't surprised at all."

But Michigan (9-2, 6-2), likely on its way to the Orange Bowl or Fiesta Bowl, finally punched back.

After Provitt's fumble, forced by cornerback James Whitley and recovered by safety Cato June at the Michigan 23 with 9:05 to play, Wolverines senior quarterback Tom Brady marshaled his forces.

"I knew that whatever it was going to take, we were going to come back," Brady said. "We'd had some problems earlier throwing the ball, but I knew that when it came crunch time, we'd get the job done."

His offense had been held below 200 yards at that point by the inspired OSU defense. Receivers David Terrell and Marcus Knight had been hamstrung by the tight man-to-man coverage of cornerbacks Ahmed Plummer and Nate Clements.

So on third-and-3 from the Michigan 30, to keep the drive alive, Brady connected with tight end Shawn Thompson for a 20-yard gain. That propelled the winning 10-play drive, capped by a 9-yard pass from Brady to receiver Marquise Walker with 5:01 left.

Bellisari and the Buckeyes tried to answer on their next possession, with Bellisari converting a sneak on fourth-and-1from the 29 to keep it alive. On the next play, receiver Reggie Germany got both hands on a deep pass down the right sideline but couldn't pull it in. Three plays later, on fourth-and-9 from the 32, Bellisari aimed another pass over the middle to a wide-open Germany, who had stopped his pattern.

"I thought he was going to keep coming across, I thought he was going to catch it," Bellisari said.

With 2:05 to play, the game, for all intents and purposes, was over. Meanwhile, questions of what could have been will hang heavy.

What if Bellisari hadn't thrown the two interceptions deep in his own territory in the third quarter? The picks helped Michigan score 10 points, including an 8-yard TD catch by Thompson that tied the score at 17 with 37 seconds left in the quarter.

"The first half was great," said Bellisari, who wound up 8 of 20 for 84 yards in the game. "The second half, I didn't play too well."

What if OSU tailback Jonathan Wells, after breaking free down the right sideline on a 76-yard run in the middle of the third quarter, had been able to outrun the final man, Michigan cornerback Todd Howard? Howard caught him at the 6.

Bellisari picked up the action after that: "The first play we called a pass. I thew it away -- they had everything covered. Then we ran the one ball, tried to get around the edge, nothing happened. And I'm trying to remember the third play."

That play was one to forget. Bellisari was cold-cocked by blitzing strong safety Tommy Hendricks, forcing a fumble. Houser, though, was there to recover it.

But when Dan Stultz lined up for a 30-yard field goal attempt, the snap from Houser -- also the Buckeyes' deep snapper -- was a high and inside. Bellisari bobbled it slightly, then put it down. Stultz had seen the bobble and hesitated, then blasted a low line drive that went wide left.

A possible 10-point lead was not to be.

"I thought that was a big turning point," Cooper said.

It was yet another one in a season chock full of such turns. The Buckeyes outgained the Wolverines 368 yards to 252, and many of the Buckeyes left the scene blinking twice.

"It's kind of mind-boggling because you don't really understand what went wrong, going into halftime with momentum and things of that sort," OSU linebacker Na'il Diggs said. "It's really confusing, and you've got to kind of sit down and think for a while, `What happened?' "

But that's the story of the season.

"It really is," Diggs said. "I don't really have the answer to what went wrong. It's not like there is a blatant answer to it."