How Rich Rodriguez Made the Nation Hate the Ohio State Buckeyes

The year was 2007 and the Buckeyes were picked to finish third in the Big Ten.

Michigan was once again picked to win the conference and was ranked in the top five in many of the preseason polls. Then came the improbable upset loss to Appalachian State and eventually the end of Lloyd Carr's regime at Michigan.

In Columbus Jim Tressel continued his domination of the Big Ten. The schedule had been a friendly one. Their only loss came in a tightly contested game with Illinois and their vaunted quarterback Juice Williams. In that game there was a fumble that was made by an Illinois player that had been a non call that was verified by the Big Ten officials earlier this year.

Michigan was after Les Miles who would end up winning the BCS Championship Game with a two loss LSU team. After a lot of speculation and an errant report by Kirk Herbstreet, Michigan would not get their first choice.

Ohio State didn't have a realistic shot at reaching the title game with West Virginia ranked ahead of them and playing a weak Pitt team in the Backyard Brawl.

Well another improbable upset was brewing and this time it would be the Mountaineers on the short end of the stick. Rich Rodriguez had blown his teams chances at a championship with a late season loss to a un-ranked team.

So here is where the haters lined up to groan about OSU sliding into the number two spot in the national polls. Needless to say they were about to become 0-2 against the SEC in BCS Championship Games.

As we all know Rich Rodriguez ended up with the team from up north. Some of the West Virginia faithful have been whispering the Pitt loss was no accident. I hope that would not be the case. I doubt that was the case, but we will never know. 

Ohio State would have been where Georgia is now in the minds of the college football fans if they would have finished number three in the polls instead of losing another BCS Championship. That would have been a great achievement in what was considered a rebuilding year.

This year Ohio State will be lucky to get in the BCS Championship with a one loss season. People don't want to see the same thing over and over even if the third time is a charm. Even a perfect season will not be good enough for some.

Michigan is not helping with another opening day loss to a non-BCS team. The Big Ten is on its way to being perceived as weak conference nationally. Not to long ago we were looking for a Michigan-Ohio State rematch in the championship game.

So that's how Rich Rodriguez made the nation hate The Buckeyes. In a down year for Michigan they can feel good about something until their annual beat down by the Buckeyes.