Inside the plane ride that helped Michigan take off on championship ride

Michigan Wolverines football departed for State College, Pa., Friday, Nov. 10 for a matchup with Penn State the following day. As the team took off head coach Jim Harbaugh‘s status was still in question, with the possibility that he’d be suspended by rookie Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti for the final three regular season games.

While Michigan was in the air, the news came down that Harbaugh was indeed banned from coaching his team on game day until the conclusion of the regular season, despite there being no known proof that he had involvement with an alleged off-campus scouting scheme.

Instead of the Big Ten calling Michigan to inform them of the news, Harbaugh found out by a staffer showing him a phone with a social media post announcing it. That infuriated athletic director Warde Manuel, who rode with the team. He wrote a strongly worded letter the following day before the Wolverines beat Penn State, 24-15, in front of a raucous crowd at Beaver Stadium.

“We land, and in the air your phone’s not on, so you’re just getting ESPN reports, and we’re like, ‘What, what’s going on?’” Michigan cornerback Josh Wallace recalled while speaking with media at the NFL Combine. “And then we saw that Coach Harbaugh got pulled aside, and we were like, ‘Oh, shoot, this is happening.’ We all tweeted out the ‘bet,’ and then just took off from there.”

“It was just terrific timing, right?” offensive lineman Trevor Keegan said postgame.

Harbaugh didn’t address his team until later that night. But the news put a charge in the players, who, now famously, all tweeted one word — ‘bet’ — while eating team dinner that evening.”

Looking back, Wallace believes that moment was the inflection point for Michigan’s season. The Wolverines took care of business against the Nittany Lions, picked up their 1,000th win at Maryland and beat Ohio State, all with Sherrone Moore as interim head coach. Twenty two days after Harbaugh, Manuel and Michigan staff members huddled on the tarmac in State College, Petitti handed the Wolverines — namely injured right guard Zak Zinter — the Big Ten championship trophy after a shutout win over Iowa. What was presumably his worst nightmare came true.

Scouting allegations came down in late October, leading to high-level scrutiny of Michigan’s program. Harbaugh’s suspension and vitriol from both the media and rival fan bases galvanized the team.

“Really just the media turning it on us,” Wallace said of a turning point. “It gave us all motivation and wanted to play more for Coach Harbaugh. I remember before the Penn State game, we were on the plane and found out that they had suspended our coach in the air. That kinda took us the wrong way, so that’s what I’d say.

“That’s what kind of turned us around.”

The Wolverines took flight from there, finishing off the season with victories over Alabama and Washington in the College Football Playoff. They were called all sorts of names throughout the season, but now they’re simply known as ‘national champions.’

Josh Wallace had outstanding one-year experience at Michigan

Wallace, a 6-foot, 190-pound cornerback who transferred in from UMass ahead of the 2023 season, played in an NFL-style defense last season under coordinator Jesse Minter, noting that it helped prepare him for the next level.

“During the season, Michigan had me well-prepared for this moment,” Wallace said. “Throughout the season, being coached by Coach Harbaugh, [co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs] Coach [Steve] Clink[scale], Coach Minter had us prepared for this moment, and I’m blessed to be a part of the team.

“Just throughout the season, in all 15 games this year, we did a great job of playing our skills and just being well-prepared for the moment.”

All three coaches are now with the Los Angeles Chargers, and Wallace said he’s seen some of them at the combine in Indianapolis.

This time last year, Wallace didn’t think he’d be in this spot.

“It’s been a blessing,” the Michigan corner said. “A year ago, I would’ve never thought I’d be in this position, so I’m just taking it day by day and embracing the moment.

“Being at Michigan played a huge role in it, being on a bigger scale or on the map, as you say. And the competition throughout the year that was lacking, I guess, at UMass, so that helped out.”