Michigan’s three consecutive victories over Ohio State on the football field continue to negatively impact the Buckeyes’ fan base, and the same goes for Michigan State’s loyal supporters, who typically rely on OSU to beat UM when their Spartans can’t.
The most recent example of this occurred after the first NFL preseason game for quarterback JJ McCarthy, who was selected by the Minnesota Vikings with the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. After the rookie QB threw an interception in his first professional series, fans in Columbus and East Lansing cheered and celebrated. The tone changed, however, after McCarthy finished with 188 passing yards and two touchdown throws, completing 11 of 17 attempts against the Las Vegas Raiders.
The first of McCarthy’s touchdowns caught the attention of ESPN NFL analyst Louis Riddick, who made a not-so-subtle jab at the quarterback’s evaluators ahead of the draft.
“But he can’t throw outside the numbers to his left” 🙄 pic.twitter.com/Y03tL6JYut
— Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) 10 August 2024
Of course, as usual, Buckeyes and Spartans fans came from all corners to dispute Riddick’s endorsement of McCarthy. I’m sure the vitriol had nothing to do with the fact that McCarthy was 4-0 overall against Ohio State and Michigan State as Michigan’s starter and 5-1 overall against those two schools in his career. But as you can see below, Riddick hit back at one of those snide Buckeye fans.
Spoken like a real casual guy who has no idea how difficult it is or not 🤡
— Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) 10 August 2024
McCarthy’s days in Ann Arbor are over, and across the college football world, we’re less than three weeks away from the start of the season. Ohio State has a team that will likely be ranked in the top two in the Associated Press preseason poll and is ready to compete for a Big Ten and national title, and yet Buckeyes fans are still busy discrediting a former Wolverine entering the NFL. For a Michigan State fan, that would be more understandable — they have much less to be excited about this fall. Yet, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, Ohio State fans just can’t handle what Michigan has brought to their program three years in a row.
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