WATCH: Jim Harbaugh, Michigan players press conference following Rose Bowl win over Alabama
PASADENA, Calif. — Michigan Wolverines football head coach Jim Harbaugh, junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy and junior linebacker Junior Colson spoke at a press conference following their 27-20 overtime victory over Alabama in the Rose Bowl. Watch video in the player at the top of the screen or on our YouTube channel.
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Harbaugh opened the press conference with a statement.
“Happy New Year,” the Michigan coach said. “Great way to start the new year off. Glorious. That was glorious. It was a tremendous football game. Congratulate Alabama on a terrific game and their great players and coaching staff and their fans. It was an epic game. Glorious is how I feel. That was a tremendous win.”
Harbaugh said before the game that a potential Rose Bowl win and national championship would be more for his players and less for him.
“It’s what it means to these guys, to our players the most, to them, to be champions, for their parents to have their son be a champion, their brothers and sisters, their grandparents, for our coaches, for my kids to have a dad be a champion, my parents, just those people to get to feel what that’s like,” Harbaugh said. “That’s kind of long gone for me. My joy, my ecstatic joy is for our players and our coaches and our fans and our families, that they get to experience that joy of being a champion.”
McCarthy, meanwhile, acknowledged that Michigan had just 41 yards of total offense in the second half until the final game-tying drive.
“I would just say credit to a great defense,” the Michigan signal-caller said. “They played tremendous. They had a great game plan for us. It’s just all about focusing on the next play, one play at a time, and just staying in the present moment and worrying about the assignment that you have to go out and execute.
“We weren’t really getting things going, but that never bothered us because it is all in the past and we are focusing on staying in the present and controlling the future. To answer your second question, everything that I see out of Blake on a day-to-day basis and everything that Blake is, when everyone is tired, when it’s overtime, he’s going to be the guy that shows up just like he does in sprints when we run them in the off-season. It was nothing new for me. It was just amazing the world got to see it.”
