The Mahatma

"First they ignore you. Then they mock you. Then they fight you. Then you win."

-- Mahatma Ghandi

Since June 10, 2011, basically 14 months, Brady Hoke has landed eight (8) players from the state of Ohio who held Ohio State offers:

1. 2012 DE Tom Strobel
2. 2012 OL Kyle Kalis
3. 2012 DE Chris Wormley
4. 2013 S Dymonte Thomas
5. 2013 LB Mike McCray
6. 2013 RB Deveon Smith
7. 2013 LB Ben Gedeon
8. 2014 LB Michael Ferns

In the previous TEN classes COMBINED, from 2002 to 2011,  Michigan landed seven (7) players from Ohio with OSU offers:

1. 2003 LB/DE Shawn Crable
2. 2003 S/LB Prescott Burgess
3. 2004 DE/TE Mike Massey
4. 2005 WR Mario Manningham
5. 2006 OL Justin Boren
6. 2008 TE Kevin Koger
7. 2009 DB Justin Turner

They will deflect with dismissiveness and rationales ("Tressel was fired," "_____'s offer wasn't commitable," "We like other players better," etc). They will come up with creative ways to insult Hoke (jokes about his weight, or the even more clever "Brady Choke"/"Brady Joke" nicknames). Yet for the last decade, they have crowed about the vaunted "fence" that was assembled, declaring that Michigan could never succeed, and certainly never beat Ohio State, without quality Ohio talent, and that UofM had finally been choked off from the pipeline to the south.

And now that that narrative has been collapsed in just over a year, they will scramble for a new one to make themselves feel better, which, ironically, will sound a lot like the bravado Michigan fans had when Rich Rodriguez arrived in 2008.

One of the best fallacies they always and will continue to cling to will be that it doesn't matter who Michigan lands, Ohio State will still land their own stars; as if this has not been the case for 60+ years. Ohio State has always landed the lion's share of talent from their home state; what changed in the last 10 years to swing the rivalry in OSU's favor was the failure of Michigan to land high-level state of Ohio talent.

And now that those circumstances have changed, they will have nothing of substance to say. When you have the facts on your side, you pound the facts. When you have the law on your side, you pound the law. When you have neither on your side, you pound the table.

Plenty of table-pounding going on in Ohio right now.