The Moment This Rivalry Changed

it was two years ago when JH decided that we were going to prepare for THE game all season long.  

ohio has been doing that since the 90s (when we owned them) and that's why they have had the better of the last 20 years. 

Honestly it was Gardner going for two. The program didn't immediately right the ship, but that was our football equivalent of Zack Novack's Aneurysm Of Leadership.

It changed Nov 30, 2019 when we lost 56-27.  

That day we were exposed on crossing routes and it emphatically proved Don Brown's defense was not the answer for OSU.

I hate to say it, but I don't believe it was a moment of heroics on the field, or a coaching gaffe that changed the trajectory of this rivalry.

On the contrary, that last loss in Ann Arbor when we were run out of our own building must have finally made Harbaugh realize that fundamental changes were needed to have a chance against elite programs like Ohio State, but the process of making those changes is what I think changed the rivalry.

EDIT: I see that another post says pretty much the same thing, posted when I was composing mine. I agree with that post.

It was a process, not a moment. I will concede that for the fans, there might have been a moment where things became clearer.

sure, and I would like this to be the default answer just to make Day continue to eat spoonfulls of shit for being the catalyst of the change of course.

The current paradigm is the result of a thousand small moments, not one large one.  UMich sticking with Harbaugh when 80% of this board (and quite a few highly regarded posters) wanted him out for some amalgam of Matt Campbell/Luke Fickell was one such moment, to be sure.  

In hindsight, it was probably the firing of Don Brown. I don't say that to pile on Don Brown; despite his failures in The Game, he accomplished a great many things while he was here and deserves credit for those accomplishments. But the fact that Jim Harbaugh would fire his own hand-picked defensive coordinator who had previously led top-ranked defenses multiple times (and whose praises he had previously sung in the media, without prompting) indicates his willingness to swallow his pride, recognize what's not working, take a risk to break the good-but-not-great threshold, and make the changes necessary to build a team that's custom-engineered to beat Ohio State. I'm not so sure that's the mindset he had when he first arrived.

Selling jerseys in Ohio is a start...

The rivalry changed with the cancellation of the 2020 game.

It gave Michigan time to heal a wounded psyche and distance itself from its most recent defeat. That extra time allowed the program & coaching staff to establish a new culture, a new mindset.

When messages started showing up around the complex summer of 2021, such as "What have you done to beat Ohio State today?", that was all part of recreating the new culture, and was aided by the most recent loss having been about 20 months prior instead of still having some fresh wounds from as recently as the previous season.

I commented to a thread back then responding to those of you who were saying "we have to beat OSU first, then we can start doing that kind of stuff", and I said "no, you have to establish the culture first, and then you can win." I'll see if I can find that thread.

Anyway, that gap in time allowed the Michigan program to breathe and re-establish itself with a new, fresh identity. Not playing in 2020 definitely had a positive impact on the psyche of the program.

What team did this in The Game?

3 play 81 yard TD drive

5 play 78 yard TD drive

5 play 63 yard TD drive.

OR

3 play 70 yard TD drive

3 play 92 yard TD drive.

1 play 75 yard TD drive

The cosmetics are different, but that is not Urban Meyer's Ohio State Buckeyes.

That's Jim Harbaugh's Michigan Wolverines 2021 and 2022, which is f#$%ing ridiculous.

I think HARBAUGH has changed the tide on the rivalry. Hell people in Ohio are starting to believe him. Never in a million years I would have thought that. Selling Michigan jerseys is a good start.

I think it all changed after the COVID season.  I think Harbaugh had a reflection at that point. He had let the loss of 2016 seep too far into his mind.  He knew his legacy was tarnished at that point. If he changed nothing, he would be another good but not great coach.  I don't think that's him.  He redid his contract.  Redid the coaching staff with a ton of great talent, including fellow coaching alum who are as passionate as he is (looking at you Mike Hart), and said he will not go silently into that good night.  He has lost two games since then.  One to MSU on a hurculan effort by Walker, and one to Georgia, the best team in the nation.  He is sharp and focused, and has the team playing the same way. 

He wants to leave his legacy on this Team, this university, and this program as Leader and the Best.  This is who Harbaugh truly is, and it is great to see him back in form.  Fun team to watch.  Three more games to win it all. Go Blue! 

I do think the "hang 100" comment had a major influence on the changes in the Michigan mindset.  It does seem that occasionally someone in a program says something that lights a fire in a program that leads to a new way to look at a rivalry, especially when it has been incredibly one sided for a long stretch.  

My opinion is the "Little brother" comment had the same effect on Sparty leading to a new determination to beat Michigan each year.  Similarly I think the "Hang 100" was the catalyst that sparked this new outlook on The Game and the results speak for themselves. 

Back when Hart made the little brother comment I didn't like it. I felt that Day's comment was going to have a similar result.   

I actually agree.  I think that when Day said that, Harbaugh took it personal.  I think Harbuagh likely saw it as an attack on his players (who had fought hard in a terrible season) and an attack on the program (fans included).  Harbaugh doesn't seem to mind people talking bad about him, but we all know that he won't stand for berating his players (when they were already getting it from everywhere for being 2-4).  Day's comments seemed to show that he had no respect for Michigan, it's program, or its players.  They are just fodder to his Scarlet and Gray machine.  I don't know anything about Ryan Day but I bet he regrets saying that (well, maybe just that it got out), but Harbaugh definitely took that personal and made his whole existence about making Day choke on those words.  And it has been glorious.

I definitely agree,"100!"  Shiiiiiiiiiii, yeah right!

It was in the endless hours of practice with the belief that the team could beat those dastardly Buckeyes. It was no one moment. It was a hundred+ Wolverines putting in hour after hour to get better. It finally showed on a snowy day in Ann Arbor in the fall of 2021. An exclamation point was added this past weekend.

Those hundred+ Wolverines showed Day and the Buckeyes what it means to "hang a hundred" on someone. It's having the whole team come together and work work work.

The rivalry and program changed when Jump Around played vs Wisconsin, in 2021

I think it was clear it changed on the Edwards TD - INT - Edwards TD. Obviously we had our moments before that, but that series of plays is when the world saw that 2021 was not a fluke and no OSU is not just going to return to normal this year with a better DC. 17 million people saw that Michigan is in control of this rivalry now

I don't disagree at all.   Everyone has been singularly focused on Ohio State since then.

I remember how much the word respect was tossed around in the 80's and 90's, 'Hang a 100' was the ultimate disrespect

On Wednesday, November 24, 2021, my pal Jordan texted me a photo of 2 tickets for the Ann Arbor edition of The Game.   I responded "I'll drive" and Venmo'd him for the price of 1 of the tickets.   That's when it began.  

I absolutely agree 100%.

Day’s mouth wrote checks his ass couldn’t cash.

I bet Day is wishing he’d never said that right about now. “Hang a 100 on ‘em”? Fuck off and die asshole.

Since you asked about a moment, and I'm looking at results more than I'm looking at who said or did what prior to the game, here are my thoughts.

First, I loved the win last year; I felt, though, that we needed to win in Columbus to truly claim the rivalry had shifted. With that accomplished, I will point out two moments in Saturday's game that told me we were going to win and thus, the rivalry was going to "officially" shift.

1. JJ running thru and dragging OSU defenders to turn what should have been a short run into a big gain, on the drive that put us ahead for good. This showed, once again, that our guys are tougher. 

2. That idiot #88 head butting our guy. Reminded me of #26 ripping Roman Wilson's helmet off last year. In my years of watching football, I'd say 99% of the time when a player does something so egregious, his team goes on to lose. This type of action shows your head isn't in the place necessary to win- and the team is feeling defeated.

The rivalry changed when the Wolverines fired Jim Harbaugh after the covid season and then hired Happy Harbaugh.   Happy Harbaugh brought with him a young coaching staff who was able to relate to the young Wolverines.  Now, the young Wolverines plays with confidence and have tons of swagger that can be seen on the  footballl field.  With the swagger they have become Harbaugh's Happy Heroes who enjoy winning