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That 97 UM offense was brutal.  I'm not saying it was bad, but it turned out to be very limiting of itself.  I believe it had only 1 WR among its top 6 pass-catchers.....maybe 2.  That's very rare.
So many passes to RBs and FBs and the TE Tumane (I believe).  That's killing your yards-per-attempt average.  They took the "we have a great D, so our O's job is to not screw up" and ratcheted it up to 11.

It worked for them in all the games they played but I don't know that it would have been enough against the Huskers.  In their game vs tOSU that year (their second closest game, a six point win and arguably the best team Michigan played that year:

• 10-2 Washington State (Michigan's Rose Bowl opponent) finished #9
• 10-3 Ohio State finished #12
• 9-3 Penn State finished #16
• 8-5 Wisconsin finished with votes
• 7-5 Michigan State finished with votes
• 7-6 Notre Dame finished with votes

Ohio State got down 20-0 early in the third then scored two TD's to finish 20-14.  The five TD's in the game were scored by:

• Two by Ohio State's Offense
• One by Michigan's Defense
• One by Michigan's Special Teams
• One by Michigan's Offense

Box score highlights:

• Ohio State had more first downs 13-12
• Ohio State had more rushing yards 119-42
• Ohio State had more yards per carry 2.9-1.0
• Ohio State had more net rushing yards 175-97 (the difference between this and total yards rushing is negative plays, mostly sacks)
• Michigan had more passing yards 147-133 (both figures are pathetic by modern standards)
• Both teams were dismal in percentage completed but Michigan was less dismal: 14-25 no picks vs 9-26 two picks.  Michigan's slightly over 50% completion percentage would be decent if they had been throwing bombs but they weren't, it was only 5.9 per attempt and 10.5 per completion.  
• Michigan had more yards per passing attempt 5.9-5.1
• Ohio State had more yards per completion 14.8-10.5.  Relevant here is that Ohio State had a 56 yard TD pass which accounted for 1/9 of their completions and more than 40% of their passing yards.  
• Ohio State had more total yards 252-189 (both figures are pathetic)
• Each team ran 67 plays
• Ohio State had more yards per play 3.76-2.82
• Ohio State had 10 punts for 443 yards (44.3 avg), Michigan had 11 for 400 (39.4).  
• Michigan won turnovers 3-2 (two picks and a lost fumble for tOSU, two lost fumbles for M)

Michigan's offensive numbers in that game are pathetic but . . . they won.  They had one more turnover in their favor (one of which was a pick-6) and Woodson had a Punt Return TD.  

not a meat grinder schedule, but the Buffs were very good and the Canes were tough in the OB.  Here are results that year against teams that finished ranked  in final AP Poll):

Beat #3 Colorado 24-7 at home (Osborne said it was possibly the best game his teams played)
Beat #6 Miami 24-17 in the Orange Bowl - away
Beat #19 Kansas St 17-6 on the road - sophomore walk-on Matt Turman QB


Net Rushing Yards  per game   Huskers 340.0   opponents 79.3