Ohio State hands out championship rings, gold pants while Michigan assistant fumes

The latter are awarded when Ohio State beats Michigan, as the Buckeyes did last season for the 14th time in the past 15 years.

>>FLASHBACK: Buckeyes upset Wolverines, earn trip to Big Ten title game

After pasting favored Michigan 62-39 in the 115th playing of The Game, Ohio State topped Northwestern 45-24 in the Big Ten championship game to claim the 38th conference title in school history and second in as many years.

The gold pants tradition goes back to the 1930s when coach Francis Schmidt famously told reporters the Wolverines "put their pants one one leg at a time, same as we do" before leading his first four Ohio State teams to shutout wins in the series.

Among those to receive a gold pants charm Thursday was former coach Urban Meyer, who retired in January with a perfect 7-0 mark against the Wolverines as head coach of the Buckeyes.

Michigan entered the most recent matchup on a 10-game winning streak, including routs of Michigan State, Wisconsin and Penn State some Wolverine players declared was part of a “revenge tour” that was set to conclude in Columbus.

>>RELATED: Remembering mad genius Francis Schmidt | Did Ohio State have a successful season?

After the Buckeyes blitzed the Wolverines, fifth-year senior receiver Parris Campbell confirmed that talk rankled the Buckeyes, who have won 16 of the last 18 games against Michigan to draw the series to 58-51-6. That is the closest it has been since a 6-0 Wolverines win in 1906 gave them a 7-0-1 advantage in the series.

Campbell and those who came in with him in 2014 became the sixth Ohio State class to earn five pairs of gold pants, something that had never happened before the 2004 class did so in 2008.

Meanwhile up north, a Michigan assistant was still seething about the most recent game and two subsequent losses for the program.

Chris Partridge, who coaches special teams and safeties at Michigan, told reporters, “I’ve got blood in my mouth” as a result of the way the season ended (including also a Peach Bowl loss to Florida).

He also took issue with assistant coaches Greg Mattison and Al Washington leaving Michigan to take new jobs at Ohio State in January.

"I want to be candid," Partridge told a group of reporters including Nick Baumgardner of The Detroit Free Press. "Those guys left and it was another shot. It wasn't OK. That's how I feel. I'm not speaking for anyone else. I'm ultra-motivated and I make sure my guys, whenever I get in front of them, they hear it."

Washington, the son of a former Ohio State linebacker who was born and raised in Columbus, was only at Michigan for one year, but Mattison's departure was more of a surprise given he spent two stints with the Wolverines, the most recent beginning in 2011.

"It's odd,” Partridge said. “I've never seen it happen before. I'm not going to pretend to understand the reasons. All I know is we're here. And the people who are here, we're locked arms. Ready to go. Ready to walk down that alley and do what's needed to win and that's all that I care about.

“That was (Mattison's) decision. He made his bed. He's got to lie in it. So here we go."

Last month, Harbaugh said he would not be sending Christmas cards to the coaches who left but that he did not hold their decisions to leave against them.

The 116th meeting between Ohio State is scheduled for Nov. 30 in Ann Arbor.