November 21, 1998

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State vs. Michigan

Game Notes

Nov. 21, 1998

Big Ten Champions – Ohio State claimed its 28th Big Ten Championship today with a 31-16 win over Michigan.

Sensational Seniors – Ohio State’s senior class notched its 42nd win in four years today, setting a new Ohio state record.

Rumbling Joe – Senior tailback Joe Montgomery made his first career start today.

Wiley Goes Yard – Michael Wiley’s 53-yard touchdown run in the first quarter was his third longest run of the year and his second longest touchdown run of the season. Wiley topped the 100-yard mark for the sixth time this season against the Wolverines.

Dominating Damon – Damon Moore set a new career high with 12 tackles today.

Continued Production – Ohio State wideout David Boston has now caught a pass in 31 consecutive games. Dee Miller now has a reception in 26 straight games.

More on Boston – Boston eclipsed the 70-reception plateau for the second straight season. He is the only OSU receiver to catch 70 passes in a season, and he has done it twice. He also set a new career high with 217 receiving yards, and moved into second place on the all-time receiving yards list, surpassing Chris Carter’s 2,725. Boston gained more receiving yards than any other player in history against the Wolverines today (beating out John Harvey of Northwestern who had 208 yards against UM in 1982) With ten catches on the day, Boston also broke his single-season school record of 73 catches. He has 74 so far this season.

On the Passing Side – Joe Germaine notched his seventh 300-yard passing game this season. He now has eight during his career.

Rudzinski Shines – Senior captain Jerry Rudzinski made his second career interception in the third quarter. Rudzinski’s other pick came on Nov. 2, 1996 vs. Minnesota.

Another Plummer Pick – Ahmed Plummer collected his fourth interception of the year in the fourth quarter. He now has nine career interceptions. Snapping a Streak – Ohio State’s third quarter touchdown was the first allowed by Michigan in the second half of a conference game this season.

Not Your Average Fullback – Matt Keller’s 49-yard reception to set up an Ohio State field goal in the third quarter was his longest catch of the year.

Not Your Average Quarterback – Steve Bellisari made a whopping five tackles on special teams today (three unassisted).

Today’s Attendance – 94,339 fans watch Ohio State square off against Michigan, the largest home crowd of the 1998 season.

Michigan Game Notes

Despite today’s loss, Michigan will share part of the Big Ten Championship this season, the 39th in school history.

Today’s loss snaps a 16-game winning streak in the conference and an eight game winning streak this season.

Tom Brady completed 31-of-56 passes for 375 yards today. With those numbers, Brady breaks UM records in attempts, completions, and yards. Scott Dreisbach held the previous yardage record with 372 against West Virginia on Aug. 26, 1995.

Michigan had two 100-yard receivers today in Tai Streets (9-118) and Marcus Knight (7-116). It marks the second time this year UM has had receivers go over 100 yards. Against Notre Dame earlier this season, Knight hauled in 126 receiving yards and Streets notched 101.

With his nine catches, Streets now has 132 receptions, tying Jack Clancey for fourth place on UM’s all-time reception list. Desmond Howard is next on that list 134 receptions. Streets now has 2,065 career yards. He becomes the sixth receiver in UM history to go over the 2,000 yard mark. He ranks sixth on the all-time receiving yardage list. Mercury Hayes is fifth on that list at 2,144 yards. Howard is fourth on that list at 2,146 yards.

Senior placekicker Jay Feely scored 10 points today, the second best effort of his career.

Jon Jansen, offensive captain, recorded his 48th career start today.

OSU Head Coach John Cooper Quotes

“I am so happy for the team, especially for our senior football players. I’d like to salute all of those seniors, as well as some of the underclassmen. I though Michael Wiley really played well today and set the tone early. I’m so proud of everything we accomplished today. We beat a good football team.”

“We shut their running down game almost to nothing. I though Brady played a good ballgame. It was a great ballgame. The kicking game played a big factor again today.”

“We moved David around today. Obviously we wanted to get David the football. David had his best ballgame today. He’s an oustanding football player.”

“I had great confidence in our football team. I thought our assistant coaches did a great job of preparing our football team. I don’t think you saw us playing tight or playing not to lose. We played to win. Give credit to the fans today. That place was rocking. That helped us win the football game.”

“Matt Keller did a great job for us. He’s been doing a great job all day long. I had a feeling that once we got out to a two touchdown lead, they’d have a tough time coming back on us.”

“Momentum was a factor in the ballgame. Michigan ran the football right down Wisconsin’s throat last week. But they couldn’t run the ball against us.”

“This is the most important win we’ve had in a long time. I feel like if we don’t play in the Rose Bowl, we’ll play in one of the Bowl Championship Series games.”

“We were not going to go against Michigan and try to do something we haven’t done before. We did the same thing today we’ve been doing all year.”

“We’ve had some great wide receivers come out of here, and David Boston has broken all of their records. If David Boston isn’t an All-American football player, I don’t know who is.”

“I’m happy for the program. I’m happy for Andy Geiger, Archie Griffin, and Bill Myles. I’m obviously happy for our senior class and our entire football team.”

“We’d love to go to the Rose Bowl, but who knows. There’s a lot of football left to be played. We’re setting here 10-1 and with the chance to win another football game.”

“When they ran out of timeouts, it was real tough for them to come back.”

Michigan Head Coach Lloyd Carr

“Ohio State has a great team. That is obvious. We made too many mistakes against a great team. We have no excuses. We didn’t play our best game.”

“We have always been a team that prides itself on not giving up big plays.”

“I believe that the kicking game kept it from being the type of game we wanted.”

“I’m proud of these kids There was no quit out on the field.”

“Tuman got hurt early in the game and that affected our running game. It became more of a passing game and not our ideal type of game.”

“David Boston made some great plays. Ohio State’s defense is outstanding. That secondary – we just couldn’t get it in against them.”

“You can’t have too many punts blocked and win.”

“Fred Pugac did an outstanding job mixing his plays up and also had a great pass rush. I thought we were never out of the game until those last couple minutes.”