Michigan’s Jarrett Irons reveals that ruining Ohio State’s season wasn’t a motivation for him and that Ohio State week was the easiest week of practice all season.
I don’t think you go into The Game with the mindset that you’re going to ruin their season. It’s more of a situation where it’s one of the biggest rivalry games out there so you want to play your best game.
Ohio State had some great teams. When I played, those were the Cooper years so they had a lot of talent but a lot of times they just couldn’t get the job done.
But you just want to win the game. It’s not about ruining their season. If Ohio State didn’t win a game all season and we didn’t win a game all season, you still want to win just as badly because it’s Ohio State. It’s the rivalry.
Once you’ve gone to either one of the schools to understand what the tradition involves then you know it’s not just about ruining the season. You want to beat them all the time, regardless.
While I was at Michigan, the Ohio State week was the easiest week of practice. You played all year, you knew what they were going to do, you looked at film, you studied and the coaches were a lot calmer during that game than they were in any other game. Because they knew how big it was.
There wasn’t a lot of yelling on the sidelines. If somebody made a mistake, you brushed it off and you just played the next play. There’s so much excitement going on already, you don’t want to psyche your kids out or wear them out because the game means so much.
But that doesn’t mean you slack off in terms of preparation. You have to prepare. By the time Friday comes, they would’ve already seen every game Ohio State has played all year. During The Game there’s going to be different wrinkles that they throw in the game, different plays you haven’t seen before. But there’s no substitute for preparation, no matter how big the game is
For us in 1995 and 1996 the key to winning was just not making mistakes. It was about knowing your assignments because in a game like that everybody is so jacked up because of the rivalry, so emotionally sometimes you forget your assignments. You have to find a way to calm yourself down while still being excited and know that you have to get the job done.
I think these games are the best games to play in because the top players play their best. The best players are going to play their best game.
You understand when you go to Michigan what it means to play in that game; the tradition of Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes and the guys that have built this rivalry.
You play for more than yourself, you’re playing for the guys that played before you. There’s a sense of pride when you step on that field because there are so many great players that have played in this rivalry and you’re blessed to have the opportunity to be one of those players.
There are guys all over the world that would love to play in that rivalry that will never know what it feels like.
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A two-time captain and All-Big Ten pick, Jarrett Irons now works for the Golin Harris PR firm in Chicago.
Got a question or comment? E-mail him here
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