The Michigan Wolverines rarely want to see the Ohio State Buckeyes do well in any regard, but one player was willing to make an exception for Friday night’s Cotton Bowl.
Wolverines defensive lineman Kris Jenkins was very dismayed by the Buckeyes’ weak showing in a 14-3 loss to the Missouri Tigers. Jenkins found it hard to believe that a team that had challenged Michigan for the Big Ten title could perform so poorly in their bowl game, even taking into account the high number of player absences due to injuries and opt-outs.
“I’m a hater, but that ain’t the team we played against on 25th of November,” Jenkins said, via Paolo Uggetti of ESPN. “It wasn’t sad. But dang, man. You feel me? Does that make sense? Your rival, y’all hate each other, but you want them to play good. But that was tough to watch.”
This is probably more insulting to Ohio State than anything else could be. It was a performance so poor that a player from their No. 1 rival essentially felt sorry for them.
To be clear, there were good reasons for the Buckeyes’ awful showing. A number of stars, including Marvin Harrison Jr., opted out of the game ahead of the NFL Draft. The Buckeyes were already down to backup quarterback Devin Brown after Kyle McCord decided to transfer, only for Brown to suffer an injury that knocked him out of the game. The result was an offense that managed just 203 total yards.
The worst may be yet to come for Ohio State. They surely will not want to see Jenkins and the Wolverines take home a national title, and will presumably be pulling for Alabama in Monday’s semifinal.
