Woodson Makes One Thing Clear

ANN ARBOR — Michigan is coming to the Rose Bowl, to either win or lose the national championship. The Wolverines will arrive shortly after Christmas, amid fanfare, riding on Charles Woodson’s back.

There will be others involved--quarterbacks, punters, tailbacks, assorted linemen--but only one player Michigan would not dare leave behind at Ann Arbor depot.

Saturday, Woodson personally sorted out a potentially hairy Rose Bowl scenario with a one-man-band act in Michigan’s 20-14 victory against Ohio State before a record crowd of 106,982 at Michigan Stadium.

Forget about “what if Ohio State wins and ends up in a three-way tie with Penn State and invokes a little-known clause in the Rose Bowl contract that sends the Buckeyes to Pasadena.”

No worries. Woodson and Washington State and Florida made it simple.

With the victory, the Wolverines clinched their first Rose Bowl berth since the 1993 game and, at 11-0, have taken dead aim on their first national title since 1948.

Florida State’s loss to Florida on Saturday night will unify Michigan’s top-ranked status. Michigan is No. 1 in the Associated Press poll but was No. 2 behind Florida State in the ESPNUSA Today coaches’ poll.

Michigan will play Washington State in Pasadena. If the Wolverines win, they win the title.

It was fitting that Woodson, the junior cornerback, wide receiver, punt returner, should lift a single-stem rose to his nose afterward, take a giant sniff and say, “Can you all smell that?”

There is delirium in greater Detroit because Woodson showed up at the biggest Ohio State-Michigan game in 22 years, then took it over.

He set up his team’s only offensive score with a 37-yard reception in the second quarter, scored Michigan’s second touchdown with a 78-yard punt return three minutes later, prevented an Ohio State touchdown when he intercepted a Stanley Jackson pass in the Wolverine end zone and gave up an Ohio State score when quarterback Joe Germaine and receiver David Boston beat Woodson on a 56-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.

“I think Charles Woodson played one of his greatest games in the very biggest game we have at Michigan, in a game that meant everything to us,” Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr said.

Woodson did more than that. He also may have won the Heisman with his effort--evoking memories of former Wolverine Desmond Howard’s trophy-clinching, 93-yard punt return against the Buckeyes in 1991.

Woodson also delivered another psychological blow to 10-2 Ohio State, which is 1-8-1 against Michigan in the Coach John Cooper era.

The Buckeyes can add these artifacts to their growing wax museum of Michigan horrors:

Naturally, Jackson, Ohio State’s starting quarterback, chose Saturday to throw his first two interceptions of the season. Both were ghastly. The Buckeyes were down, 13-0, in the third quarter, on the verge of making it 13-7, when Woodson helped himself to a Jackson slant pass intended for Dee Miller in the end zone.

“Stanley Jackson threw me a great pass,” Woodson would sarcastically comment later.

On Ohio State’s next possession, Jackson made an even worse decision. On first and 10 from his own 44, with Michigan linebacker Sam Sword draped around his legs, Jackson side-armed a pass into the waiting arms of corner Andre Weathers, who accepted the gift and raced 43 yards with the interception for a score to put the Wolverines up, 20-0.

“I was shocked,” Weathers said of the pass. “My eyes got big. After I caught it, all I was thinking about was end zone.”

The ultimate horror would come in the waning moments. Michigan was protecting a six-point lead with 1:40 left, desperate for one more first down to run out the clock, when Brian Griese’s dump-off pass intended for Anthony Thomas hit linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer in the arms.

The play would have been talked about for years, Katzenmoyer screaming toward the end zone with the dramatic interception return for the winning touchdown.

Except, with nothing but grass and history ahead of him, Katzenmoyer dropped the pass.

Carr could hardly stand it.

“I kept saying, ‘Lets just punt the ball so we can play defense,’ ” he said.

Michigan punted. Ohio State got the ball back at its own 16 with one time out and 1:35 left.

In last year’s Rose Bowl, Ohio State trailed Arizona State, 17-14, with 1:40 remaining when the Buckeyes drove 65 yards in 12 plays for the winning score, a five-yard pass from Germaine to Boston.

“Before the game, we watched the Rose Bowl drive versus Arizona State and said, ‘It’s going to come down to this,’ ” Michigan safety Marcus Ray said.

There would be no repeat.

Glen Steele sacked Germaine for a seven-yard loss on first down. Then, on fourth and nine at the 17, Germaine’s pass fell incomplete, Michigan players falling to the ground in ecstasy.

“I thought we had a chance,” Cooper said. “I thought we were going to win the football game up until the fourth-down pass was incomplete.”

Ohio State fought gallantly. The Buckeyes’ defense outplayed No. 1 Michigan’s, allowing the Wolverines 189 yards and 2.8 yards per play.

The Buckeyes might have pulled it out had they not let one player from Ohio get away: Charles Woodson, from Ross High in Fremont.