Winning rivalry games, is it a skill?

[damaniac]

Carr probably should have won in 01 and 04. The 01 Michigan team was pretty good early on but started on a downward spiral in the State game that year. We won a game at Wisconsin while having 1 or 0 first downs in the 2nd half, for example. So it's not clear that, given the arc of the team, that it was one he should have won, although Michigan was playing for the Rose Bowl (actually Sugar) and OSU was 6-5 or something like that. 04 was another bad one but on the road at least.

Otherwise he actually did pretty good in that in 02 and 05 OSU was clearly better, in 05 much better, yet both games came down to the wire. Granted, no one cares about moral victories but given the quality of the teams Michigan did quite well.

And of course he pulled 95 and 96 out of nowhere.