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ANN ARBOR – Ben Bredeson stepped onto the podium on Monday and was outspoken in his experience of rivalry between the state of Michigan and Ohio.
Until high school, there was little exposure. He had heard about it, just as he had heard about the Michigan football program, the one he had hired in the summer of 2015.
But the following year quickly became an intensive course of learning what the Wisconsin native was embarking on. He bought books and read as much as possible about Michigan. He looked at everything outside.
"Being a high school student, I would like to know where I was going to go to university next year," said Michigan 's left guard.
However, nothing could prepare him for his first year in 2016, when Michigan, ranked 3rd in the world, went to Columbus for a decisive showdown with the Buckeyes.
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Bredeson remembers fans around the world. He remembers being booed and being disowned by OSU fans while he and his teammates were leaving the team's buses.
"You finally understand what it's all about," says Bredeson. "I liked it from the start, I love this rivalry, I absolutely despise this school."
Michigan and Ohio State will meet on the football field for the 114th time Saturday (noon, FOX) in what has been dubbed nationally "The Game". It is considered the biggest and the longest rivalry in all sports. It's played the last week of the regular season, at noon, every year for a reason.
And Michigan, which will likely enter the game this year fourth in the country, has many players like Bredeson. Ninety-three players in the Michigan roster go elsewhere than in the state of Michigan, so it's imperative that they quickly understand the magnitude of such a match.
Like Carlo Kemp. The junior defensive wing of Boulder, Colorado, did not make the game roster for this 2016 game – but can distinctly remember its lead.
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"When you start playing with all your pals, all your brothers, you're with the Michigan guys," Kemp said Monday. "They grew up and no longer support the state of Ohio.Then you are with the guys from Ohio, who are the enemies of their own state and who grew up with fans of the Michigan."
A dozen players from the Michigan team come from Ohio. In the seasonal Midwest, it is imperative that coaches make every effort to recruit. And that means venturing from time to time in the southern state.
It's there that they found Tyree Kinnel, senior safety officer, who grew up about 65 miles west of Columbus, in Huber Heights, Ohio. Kinnel is unique in that he knows very well what the rivalry between the state of Michigan and the state of Ohio, on the other side, looks like.
He was surrounded by scarlet, gray and OSU insignia.
"It's the biggest rivalry in college football, in my opinion," Kinnel said. "You grow up looking at it, it's exciting to be part of it."
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Then there are others who grew up on the other side of the country with the pulse of college football. Zach Gentry, originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, obviously had the New Mexico-New Mexico State ("the Rio Grande rivalry," as Gentry pointed out), but he was looking for others.
"I've been paying attention to this one," Gentry said. "The states of Michigan, Ohio and Texas-Oklahoma were the most important."
So, while a large number of Michigan players are coming from elsewhere, many of them say they have quickly adopted the "M" block and learned to line up. OSU's dominance in recent years – winner of six consecutive games and not losing a home game against Michigan since 2000 – will also do so.
Nobody on this Michigan roster has had a win over the Buckeyes.
"You can not really describe it," said Kemp. "It's just something that happens when you wear the Mr. You come in and you take the Mr. .. You have to despise the Ohio State.
"And if you do not do it, I do not know why you are in Michigan."
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