Midfield scuffle mars ending of Ohio State-Michigan game

Some punches were thrown from both sides, and the teams had to be separated.

Another melee broke out within minutes after Ohio State senior defensive end Jack Sawyer took the flag and ripped it off the flagpole.

One officer suffered unspecified injuries and was taken to a hospital, a police union told the Associated Press.

The incident followed Michigan’s 13-10 upset victory over the second-ranked Buckeyes, who have lost four in a row to the Wolverines after winning eight in a row and 15 out of 16.

“I don’t know all the details of it, but I know that these guys are looking to put a flag on the field and our guys weren’t going to let that happen,” said Ohio State head coach Ryan Day after he dropped to 1-4 in the rivalry. “So I’ll find out exactly what happened, but this is our field and certainly we’re embarrassed at the fact we lost the game, but there’s some prideful guys on this team that just weren’t going to let that happen.”

The two Ohio State players made available after the game brushed off questions about it.

Michigan running back Kalel Mullings, who rushed for 116 yards and a touchdown, said he didn’t like how the Buckeyes players involved themselves in the Wolverines’ postgame celebration, calling it “classless.”

“For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game,” he told Fox Sports in an on-field interview. “It’s just bad for the sport, bad for college football. But at the end of the day, you know some people got to — they got to learn how to lose, man. ... We had 60 minutes, we had four quarters, to do all that fighting.”

The Ohio State University Police Department released a statement afterward confirming pepper spray was deployed and the OSUPD will investigate the incident.

The Associated Press contributed.