OSU – UM history….In The Numbers

The below information was sent to me via email and was originally written by Jack Park and published at BuckeyeExtra.com. I thought is was worthy of reposting…. ENJOY!

____________________________________________________________________

Rich Rodriguez hopes to avoid becoming an anomaly: a Michigan football coach who loses his first game against Ohio State.

The 105th chapter of college football’s greatest rivalry will be written Saturday afternoon when Ohio State entertains Michigan with a noon kickoff in Ohio Stadium. The Wolverines lead the all-time series 57-41-6, but the past 80 games (1928 through 2007) are even at 38-38-4.

Michigan’s 16 more victories than Ohio State are primarily the result of the Wolverines’ record of 13-0-2 during the first 15 games (played from 1897 to 1918). Halfback Chic Harley led OSU to its long-awaited initial win, on Oct. 25, 1919 — 13-3 in  Ann Arbor.

Ohio State has won the past four games. With a victory Saturday, OSU’s five-game winning streak would be its longest over the Wolverines. Prior to the present winning streak, the Buckeyes twice won four straight — 1934-1937 under coach Francis Schmidt and 1960-1963 under coach Woody Hayes. Michigan’s longest winning streak over Ohio State is nine straight from 1901-1909. The Wolverines also won six in a row from 1922 to 1927.

Coach Rich Rodriguez is in his first season at Michigan. The Wolverines have had 12 different head coaches, from 1897 through 2007, who guided their teams during the 104 previous games against the Buckeyes. Only one of those 12 lost to Ohio State during his first season as Michigan’s head coach — coach Harry Kipke’s first UM team lost to OSU 7-0 in 1929.

Jim Tressel is the fifth head coach to lead Ohio State in eight or more games against the Wolverines. The other four are Dr. John Wilce (11 games), Woody Hayes (28 games), Earle Bruce (nine games) and John Cooper (13 games). With a win Saturday, Tressel’s record against Michigan would be 7-1. The Ohio State coach with the second-best mark over his first eight games would be Woody Hayes at 5-3 from 1951-1958.

Ohio State and Michigan have faced each other each year since 1918. The Game was moved to the last game of the regular season for both teams in 1935. Only once has a game been decided by a single point. Michigan won 17-16 at Ohio Stadium in 1926 to hand the Buckeyes their only setback that season.

Five times Ohio State has entered the game ranked as the country’s No.1 team, while Michigan has been top-ranked three times. The Buckeyes are 3-1-1 when ranked No.1 — winning in 1954 (21-7), 1975 (21-14) and 2006 (42-39); losing in 1969 (24-12); and playing to a 10-10 tie in 1973. The Wolverines are 3-0 as the nation’s No.1, being victorious in 1947 (21-0), 1948 (13-3) and 1997 (20-14).

Both schools have all-time winning percentages higher than .700. Only once during the 105 seasons Ohio State and Michigan have met have both teams ended the season with losing records. The Wolverines finished 4-5 and the Buckeyes 3-5-1 in 1959.

Saturday’s date is Nov. 22. Hayes and UM’s Bo Schembechler each coached their first victories in the series on Nov. 22 — Hayes (27-7) on 11-22-52; Schembechler (24-12) on 11-22-69. The series’ 100th game was also played on this date — UM won 35-21 in Michigan Stadium on Nov. 22, 2003.

In addition to winning the past four, Ohio State has won six of the past seven and seven of the past 10, but only nine of the past 23 (9-13-1) and 13 of the past 32 (13-18-1). This year’s encounter will be in Columbus, but the home field in this series has been only a slight advantage (52-46-6).

Go to Source