ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Lloyd Carr smiled as he walked in front of rows of reporters and a string of TV cameras, then cracked a couple of jokes and chuckled at times over the next 30-plus minutes Monday while discussing one of the biggest games of his career.

Michigan and Ohio State both knocked some luster off their upcoming matchup, but it didn't diminish how desperately Carr needs to beat Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes.

If the Wolverines lose Saturday at home, Carr will become the first coach in school history to go 1-6 over a seven-year stretch against Ohio State.

Add to that fact a widely held belief that this will be Carr's last season, and the importance of the game for his legacy comes into focus.

Carr was not interested in talking about his record against Tressel or the future. But he did look and sound like he was in a good mood as a week of hype leading up to one of sport's greatest rivalries kicked off.

"When you're playing for an opportunity to go to the Rose Bowl against your fiercest rival, that's fun," Carr said during his weekly news conference. "If you can't enjoy that, then God help you."

The seventh-ranked Buckeyes (10-1, 6-1 Big Ten) and 23rd-ranked Wolverines (8-3, 6-1) are coming off losses that shifted the game away from the national spotlight.

If Ohio State wins for the fourth straight year and sixth time since Tressel took over in 2001, it will win the conference championship outright and likely land in the Rose Bowl.

"I keep talking Tressel up to every NFL owner I see," TV analyst Dan Dierdorf, a former Michigan lineman, said on HBO's documentary about the rivalry. "I can't get this guy out of Columbus. This guy's got to go away."

Tressel, meanwhile, refuses to acknowledge he has owned the Wolverines.

"In the game of football, I don't know if there's ever someone having someone's number," he said. "The game of football is won on the field by the guys in the trenches and guys making plays."

A Michigan victory would give the program the Big Ten title by itself, a return trip to Pasadena, Calif., and Carr could hold his head high with a 7-6 record against Ohio State in addition to winning the 1997 national championship and five Big Ten titles.

Signs have been pointing toward this being the 62-year-old Carr's 13th and final year as head coach since Michigan was stunned by second-tier Appalachian State and routed by Oregon to open the season.

Carr altered his contract last December, allowing him to easily make this his final season as coach and still collect deferred compensation. In March, his assistant coaches were given two-year deals to pay them through Feb. 28, 2009, even if they are not coaching at Michigan.

Carr has consistently dodged questions about next year, saying it would be hypocritical if he answered them, and did so again when the topic was broached Monday.

"The only thing on my mind is this game," Carr said after laughing.

Many others, however, have been talking about his possible successor for months, if not years.

LSU coach Les Miles seems to be at the top of the list because he played for the late Bo Schembechler at Michigan, where he met his wife, and coached there under Schembechler.

Even though Miles appears to be in a great situation leading the top-ranked Tigers in a talent-rich area of the country, the school seemed concerned enough about him bolting for Ann Arbor that it put a specific clause in his contract to make it an expensive move.

In the "termination by coach" section of his deal, Michigan is the only other school mentioned. It states that Miles will not seek or accept employment as Michigan's coach. If Miles does leave LSU to coach the Wolverines, he must pay LSU $1.25 million.

Michigan's players, meanwhile, are focused on beating the Buckeyes for Carr.

"We want to win it for him," defensive tackle Will Johnson said. "He's taken a lot of criticism. That's his job as a coach, but we represent him."

When Carr was asked about such comments, he deflected his answers toward the team in a way that his mentor, Schembechler, would be proud.

Carr also said he is embracing the scrutiny that comes with Ohio State week.

"You embrace the pressure because the competition is why you play. It's why you coach," he said. "More than anything else, it's about competing to the best of your ability in a game you love and to try to achieve something with a group of people that you care about. And in this case, (people) that represent the University of Michigan in a way that we can all be proud."