Heart of the Rivalry: Ohio State and Michigan predictions, hunches, and ghosts of The Game

Heart of the Rivalry is a Blade-produced YouTube series and podcast available on all major platforms that covers the heart of college football through the sport’s own treasured programs of Ohio State, Michigan, Toledo, and Bowling Green.

The weekly show is led by The Blade’s sports columnist, David Briggs, with co-host/producer Phil Kaplan.

In this episode, The Game is here. Ohio State will play Michigan in Ann Arbor for the 122nd edition of college football’s rivalry-iest rivalry. 

Dave sets the stakes with some historic quotes from both sides of the border.

Phil’s hat says more than he does, though armed with more stats than usual — they are perhaps kept inside the giant hat.

Toledo look to take care of business against Central Michigan, and hope for the weirdest series of dominoes to fall to end up in the MAC title game. As always with the Rockets, hat or no hat, confounding stats surround them. Find out what other great stat where Toledo is top-10 nationally.  

Bowling Green will wrap up its 2025 campaign Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. as a 3-score favorite against UMAss, the only winless team left in FBS college football. 

Cameos include the flag-planting incident of 2024, weather in the form of “precip,” Earl Bruce (again), John Cooper (again), the suddenly questionable Carnell Tate, Michigan’s psychological lock on the Buckeyes, and the extra dramatic, unique nature of this year’s edition of The Game. 

All that and more from Heart of the Rivalry, the only show to cover exclusively the rivalry programs of Bowling Green and Toledo, as well as Michigan and Ohio State.