They run out of a different formation and with swifter players now, but what served Woody Hayes so well bludgeoned Michigan Saturday -- the rush from scrimmage.
ANN ARBOR, Michigan -- You might remember this, Woody, although probably not.
It was the "Von Foot" game, which probably got in your considerable craw the way the M-word always did.
It happened after Oklahoma's placekicker, Uwe von Schamann, pranced around the field at The Shoe in 1977, fluttering his arms like an orchestra conductor, while the boos poured down during the last timeout. That was following the Sooners' recovery of an onside kick, down two points, late.
After your Buckeyes had come back from a 20-point deficit to take an eight-point lead into the last minutes, Von Foot's 41-yard field goal on the last play made the Sooners winners, 29-28 .
A kid wet behind the ears burst into the Ohio State interview room after you were all but talked out. You were murmuring what-if's to a sympathetic Columbus columnist, Woody. You gave the kid time for one question.
"Do you have a sense of how exciting the game was?" the kid asked.
Wrong question.
"Oh, the hell with exciting," you spluttered in the lisp that got thicker when you were angry. "I'd rather be dull as hell and win."
The kid's ears have been drying for a long time since then.
But because the Urban Meyer-Jim Harbaugh coaching duel Saturday rekindled all kinds of memories of you and Bo Schembechler, it also brought back memories of how you liked to run between the tackles and pound the opponent until the hammer's head wore out, which was long after the defense had.
As you looked down at the Big House Saturday, you would have approved of the way the Buckeyes played. They routed resurgent, but hardly ascendant Michigan, 42-13. (Knowing how much you did for your players, Woody, and how committed you were to their education, the reporter, grown older but probably no wiser, assumes you were up there, looking down.)
It's the same ground game, but it's more exciting now. It comes barreling out of the spread formation. It's power running, but with defenders strung out like nervous pickets waiting for an assault. One missed tackle, and the enemy is at the gates of the end zone, because they all can fly.
Relax. It's just a term for speed. It's not 3 yards and a cloud of dust anymore. It's more like 6.8 yards, the Buckeyes' average Saturday, and a cloud of second-and-shorts.
The Buckeyes hugged the ground like travelers with acrophobia. Ohio State rushed for 369 yards, and 54 of their 69 plays from scrimmage were runs. They passed for a paltry 113 yards.
Quarterback J.T. Barrett rushed for 139 yards and Ezekiel Elliott, of the "I'm outta here" Elliotts, rushed for 214.
It wasn't just that Elliott only got 12 carries against Michigan State last weekend, it was that he only averaged 2.8 yards per carry.
Some of us wondered just what stunted "hey, look at me" impulse led Elliott to berate the game plan last week, although he had ample justification to do so.
We also wondered why the second-leading rusher in Ohio State history could not muster any graciousness after a loss in the wake of 23 straight victories.
"Zeke apologized 37 or 38 times. This is one of the best groups of kids I've ever been around," said coach Urban Meyer, who spent a third straight Thanksgiving Day with Elliott and his family as his guests.
"Hope to get four," Meyer joked.
"You Win with People," as you said, Woody, in the title of your book.
After the game Saturday, Elliott also thanked, in order, God and the offensive line. As an old tackle at Denison, Woody, I'm sure you liked it when Elliott made the line, not cleanliness, next to godliness.
As for losing, broken sideline markers and shredded Block O caps, shoved cameramen and a thrown punch at a Clemson player, all testify to how enraged you could get when things went poorly.
Those who knew you best said, really, it was more a matter of your team failing to reach its potential. The numbers on the scoreboard weren't as bad as the emptiness you felt after so much had gone unrealized or even squandered.
Meyer knows about the emptiness.
"It was an awful week of practice, awful as far as the way everybody felt," Meyer said of the aftermath of the loss to Michigan State. "One of the hollowest feelings . . . that was as hollow maybe after a game as I've ever felt."
The hollow men were full of vim, vigor and redemption this weekend, though.
What might have happened had Elliott not been thrown for a 2-yard loss on fourth-and-goal at the Wolverines' 3 in the last 2 1/2 minutes? If he had scored, would Meyer have gone for two extra points to make it 50?
You did that against the rivals, Woody. Twice. Because they wouldn't let you go for three.