Michigan’s road to the National Championship, part 3

I released part 1 and part 2 before the National Championship game was even played. That’s how confident I have been that we would do it. Also, it ended up being a kind of blessing Harbaugh missed half the games this season because it added to our legacy. Could any team in the country go undefeated, including wins over Penn State and Ohio State, without their head coach for 6 of their 12 games? I don’t think any other team could have accomplished what we did. I will cover the last few games in more detail, they are against generally tougher teams and more important.

Michigan’s defense is like a boa constrictor

Week 10 was against #9, Penn State. Just the day before the Big 10 commissioner had finally made his decision to suspend Coach Harbaugh for the remaining three games of the season. Can you imagine the effect on the players? By this time the “Michigan vs Everybody” mantra had kicked in for the Wolverines.  This was one of the better known games of the season, and it seemed everyone wanted to see how the Wolverines would do against a good team, especially now that nobody was taking any chances on their signs. Sherrone Moore took over and played a terrific game against the Nittany Lions, beating them in their own stadium.

Penn State scored first with a field goal. Michigan scored a TD on their next drive, and it was back and forth for the first half. The second half will be in some kind of record book, as Michigan ran 32 straight run plays to defeat Penn State 24-15, who at the time had the best rush-defense in the country. In the 4th quarter our defense didn’t let them convert a single first down. Blake Corum was the star of the second half, and somewhat famously bloodied the bridge of his nose. To quote him, who carried 26 times, “Obviously we wanted Coach Harbaugh to be here, but we did it for him today. We’ve been going through a lot lately, but it’s only brought us closer together.” Here is a clip of the highlights of this game, it’s worth a watch.

Mike Sainristil in action against Maryland

Week 11 vs Maryland brought an historic win for Michigan: it’s 1000th victory, and the first of any CFB school to achieve it. This wasn’t one of our best games. Maryland struck first with a field goal, but after that Michigan scored off of Corum’s legs, and we scored again after Maryland’s QB lost control of the ball on their 10 yard-line. By the end of the second quarter we were up 23-10. Things started going wrong right before the half, when McCarthy threw what looked like a short TD pass, but was intercepted. The second half was mostly the Terrapins’, and I’m here to tell you their QB, Tagovailoa, can throw the deep ball! By the early 4th quarter it was 29-24, and we got two more points from a questionable call for Tagovailoa which resulted in a safety, to bring Michigan up to 31. If I was a Maryland fan I would’ve been upset. Sainristil was great with a couple of interceptions, but this was one of Michigan’s worst games of the season. Here’s a clip of the full highlights, see what you think. This was the first time Michigan has gone 11-0 in back-to-back seasons ever.

Week 12 was the big one:  Ohio State. In this game Ohio State had risen to #2 and Michigan was #3 (the third year in a row we were the underdog). This was the toughest game of the regular season, and it was once again without our head coach. Fortunately, Sherrone Moore did a terrific job. Halfway through the first quarter OSU threw the first interception, which Blake Corum scored on a couple of downs later and we were off and running–literally. We held OSU to a field goal, and on our next drive McCarthy threw an incredibly accurate pass from 30 yards out to Roman Wilson for another TD–some questioned it but it seemed pretty clear. The Buckeyes answered with a TD of their own and it was 14-10. We failed to score and Ohio State made a final drive with a terrific pass to Marvin Harrison Jr, but they got no points out of it due to a missed 50-yard field goal.

The second half started with Michigan making a 50-yr field goal, which was a surprise given that we didn’t have a great kicker this year. Ohio ran the ball for their next drive which resulted in a TD, tying the game 17-17. We answered with a drive full of passes, putting Michigan up again. We even pulled a trick play (similar to last year’s), with McCarthy pitching the football back to RB Donovan Edwards, who stopped and threw the football downfield to a wide-open Colston Loveland which netted us 34 yards. The 4th quarter was eventful, with our star offensive lineman Zak Zinter getting his leg broken and carted off–it was a powerful scene, the entire team was on the field. The very next play Corum ran in for a touchdown flashing 65, Zak’s number. Michigan did two things that sucked the life out of the Buckeyes: the first was a 7-minute drive in the 4th quarter which left them only 1 minute; the second was OSU’s QB McCord throwing a second interception. The hardest game of the season but a most satisfying win, 30-24. Three years of beating Ohio State, it doesn’t get much better than that! Here is a clip of the full highlights, it’s a great game.

Things didn’t get any better for Ohio State, by the way. They went on to lose the Cotton Bowl to Missouri, who deliberately wore their classic block M helmets to troll them. Buckeye football lost to block M twice in one season that day. The Buckeyes put in their worst offensive performance in nearly a decade, and their first game without a touchdown since they were shut out in the 2016 CFP semi-final by Clemson.

The Big 10 championship game was against #16 Iowa, and it was one-sided. Michigan was again #2, Harbaugh was back, and we shut them out 26-0. The end of the first quarter was capped by freshman Semaj Morgan receiving a punt on our 8-yard line and explosively running 87 yards–Morgan will be a guy to watch next year. Iowa had a stout defense holding us to two TD’s, the rest were field goals. Sainristil was awesome on defense, forcing two fumbles and getting a sack and was named the MVP. Corum, meanwhile, is the only FBS player this year to score in every game of the season and was the nation’s leading scorer. Michigan fans booed as Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti presented the championship trophy and couldn’t even look at Harbaugh as he became the first coach in league history to win three straight outright conference championships. Later Harbaugh said “I’ve got one question for the Michigan Nation: who’s got a better team than us?” Here is the clip from the game.

Just a beautiful shot

New Year’s Day 2024 brought us to the playoffs and a difficult game against #4 Alabama. I will go on record one last time and say that we should have played Florida State. I wrote an article on it so I won’t go into it here. Anyway, everyone knows Alabama’s history and their legendary coach Nick Saban, one of the best in the history of the sport. Having 18 5-star recruits on their team (versus our 2) didn’t hurt either. Most folks bet against us. Michigan lost the toss and went wrong right away, with McCarthy’s first play being nearly intercepted. Two minutes later our special teams muffed catching Alabama’s punt, turning the ball over and allowing them to score a TD. Michigan’s following drive resulted in a touchdown, and we were tied. Deep in the 2nd quarter we picked up a crucial first down after our RB Donovan Edwards threw a too-high back pass to McCarthy, who somehow made a one-handed grab before throwing a completion to Roman Wilson for a 20-yard gain. I don’t know how he threw it while falling down and getting tackled. A few plays later Morris scored a reaching TD for us, which only resulted in 6 points as we really screwed up the PAT, almost turning the ball over. Our defense fortunately held Bama to a field goal to end the half.

The second half was different. Our defense was stellar, forcing errors and holding the Tide, but our offense stalled and nothing really happened in the 3rd quarter. The 4th quarter started with Bama scoring a TD, and now they led 17-13. Our next drive failed and on Bama’s drive we got a turnover, but it turned into a missed field goal in the third failure by special teams. We stopped the Tide from getting a TD but they made their field goal and it was 20-13. Michigan was running out of time, but we rallied on a great play McCarthy made with his legs, then a beautiful pass to Roman Wilson tied the game at 20 with 1:30 left. We stopped Bama’s drive, but once again dropped their punt right next to the end zone, picking it up at the 1 yard line in the final, fourth mistake by special teams, whom I’ve never seen play this badly. In OT Corum made an extraordinary rushing TD, and then we got the stop to topple the Tide, 27-20. Here are the highlights of the game.

This was not one of Michigan’s best games but our offense was great, with Corum setting a record for the most TD’s in program history. Our defense was flat out awesome. Michigan sacked Alabama QB Milroe a total of 7 times in the game, and tackled the Tide for a loss 10 times! We sacked Milroe a LOT, and blitzing him was one of the key strategies to winning the game. I have to say, if our special teams hadn’t made so many big mistakes we would’ve never gone to OT. Why did they have such trouble? I can only chalk it up to nerves, and maybe an off-night on top of it. I don’t think it was until after we beat Alabama that we started getting real respect from everyone.

Donovan Edwards getting it done

Finally we come to the national championship, Michigan vs Washington. Most know how it turned out, with Michigan earning a 34-13 victory and our first national championship since 1997. We started out great, our first drive earning a touchdown on a 45-yard run from Donovan Edwards. UW came back with a long drive but we held them to a field goal. Michigan’s answer was a 50-yard TD run by Edwards to end the first quarter. We held the Huskies from a TD until right before the end of the first half. Michigan’s plan had changed from blitzing (vs Alabama) to simply disrupting Penix. Michigan was up 17-10 by halftime.

Disrupt him we did, and we wore him down, especially in the second half when Will Johnson intercepted him on his first play. Our offensive line was still missing the star centerpiece, Zak Zinter, but it didn’t matter. Washington’s O-Line won the Joe Moore award, but frankly Michigan’s was better. Meanwhile our defense is what held everything together and pressured Penix on practically every play. Make no mistake,  Penix didn’t just ‘have an off night’, our defense gave him have an off night. In the early 4th quarter Penix threw a beautiful pass to Odunze but it was called back for holding, and though he later did complete a long pass it was all but over. A few minutes later the Huskies’ defense missed a tackle and Corum scored again, making it 27-13 notwithstanding an ugly extra point. That should have been it, but Penix later threw a pass into coverage that Sainristil intercepted, turning it into an 81-yard run which we scored on two plays later to end the game. Here is clip of the extended highlights.

Another beautiful shot

Corum was the offensive MVP but I think Edwards was just as good, rushing for multiple TD’s. Our defense held Washington to just 46 rushing yards and conversions on only two of 14 third downs. In fact Michigan’s defense held Washington’s offense to one TD for the entire game! Will Johnson was named defensive MVP but I think Sainristil was just as good, he was everywhere it seemed. It ended on a classy note: Penix made an emotional walk off the field following the final whistle, and while he made his way up the tunnel Michigan defensive end Jaylen Harrell caught up with the Huskies QB to offer his best.

Some statistics for you. This is Michigan’s 12th national title. McCarthy is now 27-1 in his career as a starter for a winning percentage of 96.4, better than any starting quarterback in at least the last 20 years. We are the first Big Ten team to win 15+ games since 1899. The Wolverines’ defense dominated during the regular season, allowing just 9.5 points per game, the fewest in a regular season since 2011. Michigan is the first team to hold 15 different opponents to under 25 points in a single season since 1903. Blake Corum has 58 career rushing touchdowns, the most by any Wolverines player and fourth-most all time in the Big Ten. I’ve gotta say, the majority of this season was “Michigan vs Everybody” and you know what? Michigan won.

Who has it better than us? NOBODY!