Joey Johnston

Not much was at stake in Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan game. Only the Big Ten championship. Only the undisputed No. 1 ranking. Only a spot in the BCS championship game and a shot at this season’s national title. Only bragging rights in the biggest of the 103 Ohio State-Michigan games, widely considered as the top rivalry in college football.

Only the legacy of Michigan coach Lloyd Carr.

If Michigan had won, Carr would have beaten his biggest nemesis, the nation’s top-ranked team, on the road, with the highest stakes ever. Few coaches — Bo Schembechler included — have won a game that big.

But Michigan loses, so Carr sinks to 1-5 against Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and a season’s worth of goodwill is diminished?

“That’s hogwash!” Schembechler said Monday when asked about the pressure Carr might face when trying to beat Tressel. “I think we should go back and look at Lloyd’s record.”

We did. And it’s impressive. Carr is 113-35 overall. In the Big Ten, he’s 75-21 with five league titles and a share of one national championship. So why is his legacy even being called into question?

Because Michigan has underachieved in recent seasons. Because most of the games that really mattered just haven’t gone Carr’s way. Because when the heat has turned up, Michigan displayed a tendency of playing things too close to the vest.

Because of a coach named John Cooper.

Cooper won 72 percent of his games with Ohio State. By anyone’s measure, that’s wildly successful. But how will Cooper be remembered? For his 2-10-1 record against Michigan, which seemingly toyed with the Buckeyes at times.

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Everything changed when Cooper was fired and Jim Tressel, the sweater-vest-wearing kingpin of Division I-AA was brought to Columbus. From the get-go, Tressel got it. Remember his words? “I can assure you that you’ll be proud of our young people in the classroom, in the community — and especially 310 days from now in Ann Arbor Michigan.”

Tressel stood up to the challenge — immediately. And he has proven to be an incredible big-game coach, especially when Carr stands on the other sideline.

But anyone who suggests this is the same old Lloyd Carr just hasn’t been paying attention. The program that laid its way back to a 7-5 finish last season — Michigan’s worst record in two decades — has undergone a facelift. The Wolverines are making plays. They are producing. Most of all, they are getting after people on defense.

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Carr deserves the credit. He saw what was happening last season, and he knew it was unacceptable. So he made changes, alterations that have transformed Michigan into a national-championship contender.

He cleaned house tastefully, allowing his offensive and defensive coordinator to leave for openings in the NFL. The new look has paid dividends, particularly on defense, where coordinator Ron English has made all the right moves in turning the Wolverines into a nasty, flying-to-the-ball, pressure-filled unit.

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Carr was clearly perturbed by last season’s effort, which was capped by losses to Ohio State and in the bowl game for the second straight year. It might seem ludicrous now, but there was talk of Carr being on Michigan’s hot seat. Winning more than you lose and going to a bowl game each season isn’t where the bar is set at Michigan.

It’s about winning nearly all of your games. It’s about winning the bowl appearances. Most of all, it’s about defeating Ohio State.

Carr took the necessary steps to get Michigan back among the elite. With another victory –—potentially the most significant of Carr’s career — the transformation will be complete. And Lloyd Carr will be viewed in a totally different light.