Michigan football doesn’t like Ohio State.

It’s a statement that certainly is not “new” to the Wolverines’ fanbase — or anyone who knows anything about college football — but it was one that was reaffirmed in front of the entire world on Monday, in an entirely different arena.

During Monday night’s WWE Monday Night Raw at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, a sign appeared on the Netflix live stream that pointed out the Wolverines’ streak vs. Ohio State: “1,864 DAYS SINCE OSU BEAT MICHIGAN,” the sign read.

REQUIRED READING: Davis Warren tore ACL in bowl win vs Alabama, will return to Michigan football in 2025

The sign, of course, is in reference to the Wolverines’ dominance against the Buckeyes over the last four year on the gridiron — all of which has come under Ryan Day’s tenure at Ohio State.

Michigan’s win streak began on Nov. 27, 2021 with a 42-27 romp over Ohio State at Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines then followed that up with a 45-23 win in 2022, a 30-24 victory in 2023 and then this season’s 13-10 win on Nov. 30, 2024. Over the course of its four-game win streak, Michigan has not only outscored Ohio State 130-84, but also kept the Buckeyes out of the College Football Playoff twice.

Of the Wolverines’ last four wins against the Buckeyes, perhaps none is more historic than the most recent, when Sherrone Moore’s squad upset Day’s Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium after being a near 20-point underdog. Moore improved his record to 2-0 against the Buckeyes, with his first win coming in 2023 when he served as Michigan’s interim head coach. Meanwhile, the Wolverines made Day just the fourth coach in Buckeyes’ history to lose four consecutive games to Michigan.

To make Michigan’s win this year even sweeter, Ohio State was eliminated from competing in the Big Ten championship game — and potentially earning a first-round bye to the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes, however, made the CFP as an at-large, and will compete in Friday’s Cotton Bowl semifinal for a chance at the national championship game.

The Wolverines will look to extend their win streak to five against the Buckeyes on Saturday, Nov. 29 at The Big House in Ann Arbor.

James Djonkam 
Defensive end 
Eastern Michigan 
6-3, 245 
1 year remaining (Gr.) 

Eastern Michigan’s James Djonkam, a native of Springfield, returned to the Commonwealth of Virginia on Monday when he committed to Virginia Tech.

COMMITTED‼️ @CoachPryVT @jcprice59 @Coach_Marfo pic.twitter.com/n5lxEvu2QI

— Da Ginger Freak (@Jamesdjonkam55) January 7, 2025

Djonkam was a linebacker for the Eagles, where he was a Second Team All-MAC pick after racking up 98 tackles — good for 11th in the FBS — along with 11.5 tackles for loss and three sacks in 2024. He was a three-time conference defensive player of the week and had fantastic PFF grades: 83.1 for overall defense, 84.5 for run defense, a 76.0 mark for tackling and a 91.2 in pass rushing.

However, Tech Sideline understands that he’s set to play defensive end for the Hokies. (In fairness, his coverage grade was 48.3 this year.) He was an edge out of West Springfield High School but landed at Independence Community College in Kansas, where he spent a season before transferring to Arizona State. After playing 174 snaps in two years with the Sun Devils, Djonkam moved to Ypsilanti, Mich., and had a breakout year.

In his career at the FBS level, he’s recorded 133 tackles, 14 TFLs and three sacks. He had some notable games in 2024, highlighted by his 22-tackle performance on Nov. 20 vs. Buffalo. He followed it up with a 17-tackle outing in the season finale at Western Michigan and had five tackles for loss in those two contests. He also started the year with a 13-tackle game at UMass.

Djonkam is the Hokies’ third pickup on the defensive line this offseason but the first end, joining tackles Jahzari Priester (Hampton) and Arias Nash (Mercer) — the latter of whom committed earlier Monday. He joins a room that features just one returning play-maker in Keyshawn Burgos, who has 803 career snaps. The rest of the group has 425 combined. Djonkam brings 664 to Blacksburg.

He was a dual-sport athlete in high school. As a junior on the gridiron, he recorded 133 tackles, 15 TFLs and seven sacks. Meanwhile, he averaged 14.7 points per game as a senior on the hardwood.

Djonkam wasn’t highly ranked out of high school but had several offers after a year at the JUCO level, where he recorded 64 tackles, 12.5 TFLs and three sacks. Liberty, New Mexico State, North Texas, Texas State, Toledo and UTSA were interested, but he chose Arizona State. This time around, Michigan State and West Virginia also pursued him. He has one final year of eligibility because of the JUCO ruling, courtesy of Diego Pavia.

Overall, Djonkam is Tech’s 14th portal acquisition and the eighth on defense, five of which are defensive backs.

For more information on Virginia Tech’s comings and goings in the portal, click here for Tech Sideline’s roster management page.

James Djonkam links: 

Eastern Michigan bio 
ESPN 

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State redshirt freshman point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. has been everything fans anticipated when he first committed to the program as a highly touted recruit.

Fears has been the team’s floor general and has been one of the main reasons the offense has flowed as well as it has.

The young point guard addressed the media on Monday, discussing the current state of the team, its upcoming meeting with Washington and more.

You can watch below:

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo had spoken to the media earlier on Monday. Below is a partial transcript from his opening statement:

Izzo: “As I told you earlier in the year, I was hoping after Christmas, we’d to get a real good feel where everybody is. And I think we started to. We started looking at some teams that were struggling a little bit. Washington was one of them, and Oregon was one that was the other way. And then all of a sudden, Illinois goes out there and beats them by 30, and then Maryland, who was really playing well, goes out there and loses, too. I think it’s going to be hard on fans, hard on media, hard on coaches, hard on everybody to know this is going to be the norm, I think. Washington, after not looking as good, beat a good Maryland team, and then, it was a tie game last night with 30 seconds left and after being down big early. So, I think you’re seeing what I said early, that all these teams are good. Travel, different things, is going to make a difference in teams’ play sometimes. Right now, we return to Big Ten play with a, I think, an impressive win. I mean, there’s a team that beat Kentucky by 20 and has a very good team. We’re on the road, get a lead. Yes, we lose the lead, but we bounced back. … So, in a sick sort of way, does it make it better that we win in the way we did? Last 8 minutes of the game, we didn’t have a turnover after we turned the ball over a lot early. We executed well, we went on an 8-0 run ourselves, and I thought that spoke volumes about our team.”

Don’t forget to follow the official Spartan Nation Page on Facebook Spartan Nation WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and be a part of our vibrant community group Go Green Go White as well WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.