The Michigan Wolverines, their most despised foe, have emerged as the new dominant team in the Big Ten Conference, and Ohio State supporters are finding it difficult to accept this development.
But it’s official today—after three straight victories over the Buckeyes, three straight conference titles, and now the ultimate prize of a national championship in 2023—that Michigan has reclaimed the greatest rivalry in sports. Ohio State supporters find it intolerable.
During the second night of the 2024 NFL Draft on Friday, residents of “the Buckeye State” received some salt applied to their open wounds. With the 85th overall pick in the third round, the Cleveland Browns selected offensive guard Zak Zinter of Michigan, who was unanimously voted All-American. The team revealed their selection on social media, which infuriated fans of Ohio State, who support one of their two home-state NFL teams.
As you can expect, there are a tonne of irate Buckeye fans in the Twitter comment section below this post. They are resorting to the same coping strategies they have been using for the past six months to justify the Wolverines’ success: the standard jabs about Michigan “cheating” to defeat Ohio State and win the national championship.
Disregard the fact that a school-record seven players were selected in the Top 100 picks, and many more were anticipated on Day 3 of the draft, demonstrating how loaded U-M’s roster was with NFL talent. That was definitely unrelated to that, don’t you think, Brutus?
The Browns’ remark that Zinter was “bringing winning habits from up north” was made funnier by the fact that, only one round earlier, Cleveland had selected defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr., a Buckeye. The Browns just stated on social media that Hall was “staying home” and they were “keeping it local” in their announcement. He is a reliable player with high potential for the next level. But over the previous three years, Hall had a 0-3 record while facing Zinter, who was described as “a product of the trenches,” in those same trenches. Saying that.
The 2024 NFL Draft has evolved into a sort of farewell party for all that Michigan has done in the previous campaign. At the end of the second day, the Wolverines and the Washington Huskies, who finished second nationally, were deadlocked with seven draft selections each. As we approach Day 3, Michigan is aiming to surpass Georgia’s record of 15 draft selections from a single university, which was established after the Bulldogs’ 2021 national championship campaign. The Wolverines will need to have another exceptional day in order to surpass the threshold, but with a record 18 players invited to the NFL Combine earlier in the season, Michigan might be in position to create even more history on Saturday.
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