Urban Meyer credits Michigan, stadium rallying around Zak Zinter in victory over Ohio State
Urban Meyer might be working in media now, but he still hasn’t shelved his clear love for Ohio State, a place he coached and has spent his life revering — nor could anyone expect him to. But following Saturday’s win by bitter rival Michigan, a third straight over the Buckeyes, Meyer paid tribute to what the Wolverines did.
Meyer, speaking on “Urban’s Take with Tim May,” picked up on one particular sequence of moments from Saturday. It all revolved around the moment that Michigan’s right guard Zak Zinter broke his left leg in the second half with the game tied at 17-17.
Ohio State had scored on an authoritative drive on the preceding series to knot the game and momentum was teetering. After Zinter was carted off the field to chants of “Let’s go Zak!” from the 110,000-plus fans, running back Blake Corum scored a touchdown on the very next play, flashing a six and five — Zinter wears No. 65 — to the cameras.
“They won in the second half. I thought when we tied the game, and then we ran the ball right down their throats, that this was going to be a different outcome. And then their best offensive lineman got hurt and I witnessed something I’m not sure I’ve seen before, and that was the stadium rallied behind this great player. I watched it. Everything was just, all your thoughts, prayers are immediate with that player. And then the next play they score,” Meyer said.
The Buckeyes and Wolverines would then trade scores to see Michigan leading, 27-24. The Wolverines got the ball with 8:05 left on the game clock and then took off seven minutes during a 13-play drive capped with field goal to force Ohio State to drive for touchdown to try and win.
That attempted game-winning drive ended in an interception.
“And it seemed like we couldn’t get off the field on defense. And that was — there’s question marks but you also always give credit where credit is due and they played really, both teams played really hard but I’ll tell you what, that 13-play drive at the end was something to watch,” Meyer said.
The moment with Zinter, in particular, led Meyer to bring up a key point he’d brought up ahead of the game: For all the hatred and vitriol involved with Michigan and Ohio State, there is a deep-seated, begrudging respect of the opposition.
Meyer always wants Ohio State to win and Michigan to lose, but he knows at heart that each team is a worthy foil to defeat the other, no matter how frustrated he might be at the specific result in 2023.
“When you’re a TV analyst, you’re supposed to be somewhat neutral. And the beautiful thing about Fox and the guys I work with and for, they don’t want it that way at all. They understand my love for Ohio State. My love for — and I care about the head coach, Ryan Day, and I know him and his family. This is, my lifetime has been a Buckeye. So it was painful, but it’s also, I’ve said this many, hundreds of times: The respect I have for that rivalry is immense. The respect I have for, I don’t like them, the respect I have for the Wolverines and they have a very good team,” Meyer said.