Ohio State Buckeyes

Former OSU kicker remembers how he made Jim Harbaugh 'look like a prophet'

Published Nov. 24, 2015 3:48 p.m. ET

foxsports

If you believe icing the kicker never works in college football, think again.

Matt Frantz had the chance to become a legend in Ohio State history when he lined up for a potential game-winning field goal against Michigan late in the 1986 edition of The Game.

The Buckeyes trailed 26-24 with time ticking down when coach Earle Bruce called upon Frantz, who recalled the moment for ESPN.com recently for a story about the game more well-known as the one then-quarterback and now head coach of the Wolverines Jim Harbaugh guaranteed Michigan would win.

"I trotted out on the field, set my tee on the ground and looked at my holder, Scott Powell. Then I heard the referee blow his whistle for a timeout. It was a TV timeout, which meant it was an extended timeout. I looked around and saw a hundred thousand people and realized they were focused on me.
"Just before the timeout was over, I looked over and saw (Michigan coach) Bo Schembechler about three-quarters of the way out on the field. He was screaming, 'Frantz, you little (expletive), you're going to miss this kick!' He was going nuts, and his coaches were trying to hold him back. People ask me all the time if icing the kicker works. I tell them, 'Well, in my case it did.' It was a perfect snap and a perfect hold, but I hooked it a couple of feet left. There's no explanation and no excuse."

Frantz then compared going to postgame interviews to "walking to the death chamber" and said he saw a sign on a restaurant marquee that read, "Matt Frantz does not eat here."

He joked that he made Harbaugh "look like a prophet," but there was a happy chapter yet to be written in Frantz's story.

A year later, his field goal provided the game winner as Ohio State beat Michigan in Bruce's final game as head coach of the Buckeyes.

Bruce and his staff, including a graduate assistant named Urban Meyer, were fired on the Monday before the game.

(H/T ESPN.com)