Cooper, Boston just haven't learned yet

Alan Goldenbach The Bronx Bomber

There's a reason why Ohio State coach John Cooper has a problem, perhaps even a jinx, when it comes to playing Michigan. Fans, the media, players and everyone else have been banging their heads against the wall trying to figure out why Cooper, who has won at all three of his collegiate head coaching jobs in 21 years (stints at Tulsa and Arizona State preceded his tenure at the Horseshoe), can't beat Michigan.

But Cooper's problem has nothing to do with any curse of The Maize and Blue, nor is the 60-year-old Tennessee native incompetent when it comes to manipulating the playbook.

Cooper simply does not know how to control his players when it comes to "The Big Game." Twice in the past three years, he has failed to keep a muzzle on his players' mouths, and he could pay for it again this year.

In case you haven't heard yet, since it has been plastered all over Detroit-area television and radio in the last 24 hours, Buckeyes sophomore wide receiver David Boston said this after Ohio State's 41-6 victory over Illinois Saturday: "If our offense and defense are clicking, we should beat (Michigan) by two or three touchdowns."

He went on to say: "There's a lot riding on it for them. They're the ones that have been sitting on top of the world. We're going to go up there and upset them. I think we're better than Michigan."

Earth to David, Earth to David, we know you're a youngster and weren't around a couple of years ago when some other mental midget forgot to flip the switch on his mouth in late November. But did anyone in Columbus ever tell you about a guy named Terry Glenn?

No?

Then see if you can remember this quote:

"Michigan is nobody. We should keep Michigan down where they belong just like the rest of the teams."

Glenn, the junior All-America wide receiver said those oh-so prophetic words during the week leading up to the 1995 game in Ann Arbor.

A few days later, he was promptly shut up by an equally cocky freshman cornerback, named Charles Woodson, who kept his mouth closed and his mind open that week and subsequently picked off two passes that came Glenn's way - including one in the game's final minutes - in Michigan's 31-23 upset of the second-ranked and undefeated Buckeyes.

Upon hearing Boston's words, Woodson just grinned, knowing he will probably line up more than a few times opposite Boston next weekend, and said tongue-in-cheek, "Well, if our offense and defense click, we should win by two touchdowns."

You would think that the story about Glenn is one that is implanted into the memory of every freshman as soon as they set foot in Columbus, whether they play football or sit in a lab 18 hours a day studying microbiology.

It's as if this stupidity is planned by the Columbus braintrust, for what that term is worth. Both Glenn and Boston were Ohio State's, if not the Big Ten's, best receiver each year they opened up and said more than just ahhh. Both years the game was played in Ann Arbor. Both years the Buckeyes' Rose Bowl hopes depended on this game.

And both years Cooper failed to do what a good coach should have.

After Ohio State destroyed Illinois, in fact, probably as the Buckeyes were finishing off the Illini, talk of Michigan certainly started heating up on the Ohio State bench.

Then, as soon as the Buckeyes entered their lockerroom and congratulated each other, Cooper should have simply gotten up and said something along the lines of, "Don't say anything about Michigan other than, 'We're really excited,' or 'This is our biggest game of the year and we're looking forward to getting back at Michigan for the last two years.' Anyone who says anything other than that is suspended for the game. Period."

Ohio State players said, after they were told of Boston's comments, that Cooper told them not to say anything about Michigan until tomorrow. In fact, that's exactly what sophomore linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer told the media.

Boston is certainly to blame for this act of sheer absence of common sense, especially since his birthplace is, of all places, Humble, Texas. (You can't make that up. He even went to a high school bearing the same name.)

But Cooper's role in this mess has to be questioned. How much do you think he emphasized the importance of Michigan silence to his players if Boston went right out minutes later and blabbed away about the Wolverines? Better yet, when do you think Cooper said the part about Michigan?

Probably right in between his lectures about how the Buckeyes are underrated and that they're one game away from going back to the Rose Bowl.

But not after he reminded his players how they have beaten Michigan just once in the his nine years as the Buckeyes' coach.

You just have to wonder what they were thinking.

- Alan Goldenbach can be reached via e-mail at agold@umich.edu

11-17-97