Many players on the Michigan football team don’t remember the last time the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes in The Game.

They were, after all, just 12-, 13- or 14-year-old kids the last time Michigan was on the winning end of the rivalry. Some didn’t even follow Michigan football.

But Jordan Kovacs remembers that game back in 2003. In fact, the redshirt sophomore safety remembers it vividly.

“I was 13 years old,” Kovacs said at Monday’s press conference. “I was sitting in Section 27 watching the game with my parents and brother.”

Kovacs grew up just on the line between Michigan and Ohio State allegiance, in Curtice, Ohio. If you head any farther south, chances are you’re a Buckeye fan. Any farther north, chances are you bleed maize and blue. It was a line that many of Kovacs’s friends toed for much of their lives.

But for Kovacs and his family, there was never any confusion. His father Lou had walked on at Michigan in the early ‘80s. So Kovacs grew up a Michigan fan, through and through, and his family sat in their Section 27 seats every football Saturday in Ann Arbor.

They don't use those seats anymore.

“Now they’ve got my tickets,” Kovacs joked.

This year, however, as the Wolverines make their way down to Columbus for the The Game's 107th matchup, the Kovacs family won’t be in the friendly confines of the Big House, where both father and son have played.

They’ll be in, arguably, one of the toughest venues for visitors in the Big Ten and the nation — Ohio Stadium.

Kovacs doesn't sweat that, though. He’s never played at Ohio Stadium, but he’s seen his fair share of Michigan-Ohio State games there. He remembers the 2002 game, when the Buckeyes won to secure a bid to the national championship. He remembers a lot of games in the rivalry, even though the last decade hasn’t been kind to die-hard Michigan fans like him.

And in defeat, his friends — the ones who bleed scarlet and gray, at least — have made sure to remind him. They didn’t all become Michigan fans when he started suiting up for the Wolverines.

“I’ve converted a couple of my good buddies,” Kovacs said. “But I’ve still got some good friends who are die-hard Buckeye fans. And you know how those guys are. It’s tough to turn them Blue.”

With the rivalry leaning in one direction in recent history, it’s become a lot harder to turn anyone Blue. The Wolverines have lost the each of the last three games by a double-digit margin — a streak Michigan hasn’t endured since a four-year losing stretch from 1934-37. And when the Buckeyes have won six straight Big Ten Championships, the convincing becomes even harder.

But for someone like Kovacs, who Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez refers to as “one of the team’s leaders,” it’s something that’s been in his blood since the first game he saw at Michigan Stadium.

There’s something about this rivalry, the pageantry of one of college football’s greatest matchups, that reminds Kovacs every years how “blue” his blood actually is. And for the first time at Ohio Stadium, he’ll be on the field — a part of the 107-year history.

“It’s surreal to finally be a part of it,” Kovacs said.