Michigan (ugh) City, Ind. — This was going to be the year Michigan would turn it all around. It said so right on second-year coach Rich Rodriguez's résumé. And we all know résumés don't lie, right?

The renegade-coach had a history of second-year miracles after first-year flops and Michigan came roaring out of the one-year tunnel (or so their fanbase thought) with a rousing, if a bit referee-aided upset of Notre Dame. Throw in a couple of wins over directional U's and the Wolverines were 4-0 and "The Victors" was sung as fiercely as ever.
 
It would be the year the Wolverines "normalized" things with an expected victory over the hated neighbor to the south, Ohio State.
 
Right, that is what they thought.
 
Instead, the winged helmet society is swallowing whole with a 5-7 record, 1-7 in the Big Ten, after the Buckeyes smashmouthed the Gang Up North, 21-10, before a disheartened crowd that included a large sprinkling of Scarlet and Gray throughout.
 
Tate Forcier, who had started the season as Tom Brady, Jr. to many Michigan boosters, had done little more than prove he was a gifted freshman. And his rookie mistakes persisted consistently through what ends as a five-game losing streak.
 
The Wolverines, as has been the pattern during nearly all of a six-game losing streak to Ohio State — the series' longest since Michigan beat the Bucks six straight in the 1920s, fell behind and simply couldn't catch their more talented antagonists.
 
The key to Michigan's downfall was Forcier, who essentially was playing without a running game (80 yards total, 2.6 per carry), having to throw 42 times against the league's best secondary. When he wasn't being chased from sideline to sideline, sacked five times, one of which resulted in a Cameron Heyward fumble recovery in the U-M end zone, he was throwing four interceptions.
 
"I lost that game," Forcier told The Associated Press' Larry Lage via text message. "This offseason, I'm gonna make sure myself and every single person on this team works the hardest we've ever worked.
 
"We're gonna come back a new team. I'm not going to let this happen again."
 
Rodriguez, who used to coach at West Virginia and had seemingly verbally committed to his alma mater for life, said, "I'm tired of being humbled."
 
That may be, but again, Michigan is trailing Ohio State in an area that counts more than any other — recruiting. The Buckeyes again are loading up with both some of the nation's best skill position players and more talented linemen.
 
Speaking of which, one of the dominant figures in the game was offensive interior lineman Justin Boren.
 
A Michigan transfer.
 
He was never better than in the second quarter after the Wolverines had pulled within 7-3 on Jason Olesnavage's 46-yard field goal.
 
A miscommunication from the sideline resulted in tailback Brandon Saine, starkly confused for just a second, reading a Michigan defense stacked to the right — three d-backs, two linebackers and the down linemen.
 
Matt Esselstein, an aeronautical and astronautical engineering major, is a student manager and writes the number of upcoming plays on a whiteboard, flashing it to the offense.
 
According to The Columbus Dispatch's intrepid Buckeyes maven Tim May, Esselstein wrote "3" and that called for a counter handoff to Saine, who was to cut right, then go back against the flow in traditional counter-play motion.
 
"I knew it (was the wrong play for the formation)," quarterback Terrelle Pryor told May, "but I thought 'This could work.'"
 
Saine darted left with an instinct only the great running backs possess and Boren provided a pancake block on Michigan's solid nose tackle Mike Martin and Saine ran 29 yards untouched for a touchdown that put the Bucks up 14-3.
 
Was he up for this game? Born in the Columbus area, raised in a rare Michigan family, swapping Maize and Blue for Scarlet and Gray? Holy Woody Hayes!
 
"I don't know how to explain it," Boren told Columbus Dispatch columnist Bob Hunter. "I grew up a Michigan fan in a Michigan family (his father, Mike Boren had been a U-M linebacker in the early '80s). I knew about the rivalry. I guess some people take it pretty serious. But I'm just a kid trying to play football."
 
Right, and the Yankees are just a team trying to play baseball.
 
Michigan did give the game a slight taste of competitiveness when Forcier hit Vincent Smith, all 5-foot-6 of him, for an 18-yard touchdown on the opening third quarter possession.
 
While Ohio State didn't broaden its lead until the fourth quarter, there was little doubt the Bucks were in total control, behind the steady running game of Saine and freshman Dan Herron, who scored the game's final T.D. on a 12-yard pass from Pryor with 4:46 left in the fourth quarter.
 
Herron, incidentally, is another product of Pryor's high school, Jeannette (PA). It was the culmination of another hugely-successful November in the Jim Tressel era in Columbus. His teams are now 8-1 against the Wolverines.
 
"I'm glad I'm on his side," Pryor said to The Associated Press's Lage, hinting slightly at rejecting Rodriguez and Michigan during the recruiting process at Jeannette.
 
"When you're undefeated in November, good things are going to happen over the holidays," Tressel added.
 
MEANWHILE — Iowa, coming off the field after a 12-0 victory over stubborn Minnesota in Iowa City, won the annual pig trophy awarded to the winner of this game. "We try to keep our trophies here," said Hawkeyes wideout Marvin McNutt. "We don't like to have our trophies going anywhere else. It's great to have the pig with us." Insert your own one-liner here...Penn State's 42-14 victory over Michigan State wasn't unexpected, but maybe the margin was. " Darryl Clark's 310-yard, four T.D. passing day left no doubt, though.