Fifth-year senior center David Molk was a freshman at Lemont High School. Junior quarterback Denard Robinson was in the seventh grade at Deerfield Beach Middle School. Michigan coach Brady Hoke was coaching in a 41-14 loss to Bowling Green in the final game of his first season as head coach of Ball State.

The current members of the Michigan football team were in plenty of different places on Nov. 22, 2003, the last time the Wolverines beat Ohio State. But there was one common thread: none of the football team’s current members remember much about that day.

Michigan has literally forgotten what it’s like to beat the Buckeyes.

The reaction of many to the winless streak was summed up by Robinson’s prolonged “wow” at Monday’s press conference when he was told how long it had been.

The streak hasn’t been pretty for the Wolverines. In the seven-year stretch, Ohio State has outscored them by 110 points. The margin of defeat has been in the single digits just two times. Current Michigan players have endured the worst of that, getting outscored 100-24 in the past three years.

Despite the lopsided margin and general one-sidedness of the rivalry, players had mixed thoughts on the streak. Some said they weren’t thinking about it.

“It’s not something that affects me everyday,” Molk said. “It’s just another game. It’s something that we have to win as a part of our season.”

Others dealt with it more directly.

“That weighs a litter heavier on you, knowing we haven’t beat them in a long time,” said senior tight end Kevin Koger.

Hoke admitted the streak wasn’t “very good,” but he won’t use it to create more motivation for Saturday’s game.

“I haven’t talked about that with our team and probably won’t,” Hoke said. “We’ve got educated young men that are here at a great university and I think me telling them that would probably insult them and their intelligence.”

For the first time since 2004, Michigan enters the game with a better record. The 17th-ranked Wolverines sit at 9-2, while Ohio State, after a summer of scandal that saw Jim Tressel and his 9-1 record against Michigan leave Columbus, sits at just 6-5. Michigan opened the week as 8.5-point favorites. The Columbus Dispatch took down its count of how many days it has been since the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes and replaced it with a to-the-minute countdown until kickoff.

Most signs point toward this being the year the streak is broken, and it may be Michigan’s best chance. Former Florida head coach Urban Meyer has reportedly been in discussions about taking over the head coaching job from interim coach Luke Fickell at the end of the season. Meyer won two national championships with the Gators.

With Meyer possibly on the way and Buckeye freshman quarterback Braxton Miller likely to improve by next season, this could be the Wolverines’ best chance to break the streak in the foreseeable future. Does that add a little more pressure to Michigan’s “Team 132?”

“No,” Molk said. “I don’t think that really adds any pressure to anything. It’s Ohio State-Michigan. It is what it is.”

It’s a rivalry game, so no outcome is guaranteed. But one thing is: these players will remember Saturday.