Ernest Hausmann says beating Ohio State remains Michigan's focus for 5th straight win

USA Today

2 days ago

The Game is the most storied and hyped rivalry not only in college football, but perhaps in all of sports. And Michigan football struggled to make a game of it for nearly two decades. But in the past four years, when expected or when it appeared to be an insurmountable task, the Wolverines rose to the occasion.
There's never been a time in Ann Arbor when the locker room didn't take Ohio State seriously, but still, the mentality had to change. In 2021, it did, and it's continued to evolve. There's signage asking players 'What have you done to beat Ohio State today?' inside the strength facility, as well as in the Al Glick Fieldhouse, where the team holds indoor practice. The 'Beat Ohio' drill was introduced to implement a new level of physicality. Like it was during the Bo Schembechler years, there's something that helps prepare the maize and blue every day for the scarlet and gray.
So, to have four straight wins in the rivalry, it's a defining element for these Wolverines.
"It means everything," senior linebacker Ernest Hausmann said at Big Ten media days. "You come to Michigan, the standard is to beat Ohio State each and every single season. And so winning that game means everything. That is your livelihood, and that's why you come to Michigan."
As Buckeye fans started getting frustrated over a sudden lack of wins in the rivalry, there were informal polls that indicated that they'd prefer a win over Michigan over a national championship. They ended up getting the reverse scenario, and this offseason has been spent modulating the previous stance.
But with that, despite the Wolverines players having won on the field, they've likewise had to watch Buckeye players and fans celebrate a national championship -- something many Michigan players had done the year before. Still, Hausmann says that the OSU natty does nothing to diminish the Wolverines' achievement, especially since by the time Ohio State had won it, Michigan had already moved on to the 2025 version of The Game.
"For us, it doesn't change anything," Hausmann said. "We know we played that game. We played the game 60 minutes just like they did, put the helmet on, and we won that game. So it doesn't mean anything to us. It doesn't diminish our win at all. But at the same time, we understand that that's last year. It's over with. As soon as that game's over, that next day, the clock starts again. As soon as we walk into that facility after that game, the clock was on for the next game, the next season."
Beating Ohio State for a fourth-straight time, especially as a three-score underdog, helped propel the maize and blue to an equally unlikely win against Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The team will somewhat dig into the past to help them realize what they can accomplish this upcoming season, but Hausmann says, don't expect them to rest on their laurels either -- the focus is not on what was done, but what can be done.
So the four wins have happened, but a fifth is not guaranteed. It's up to the players and their work now to ensure that they continue to stack numbers in the W column.
"You can use that as momentum going forward," Hausmann said. "Like I said, every year is different. It's a new roster, and you have to have that level, the same level of preparation, even more each season, understanding that it's so much harder to do the same thing again twice. And like I said, now to do it for a fifth time, it's that much harder, right? So we have to take that account every single day and make sure that we keep ourselves at standard each day."