Podcast: Balas and Skene on Michigan win over 'Bama, O-line play, and more
Michigan beat Alabama, 27-20, in overtime Monday to advance to the Jan. 8 National Championship Game in Houston. The Wolverines’ late heroics overcame a sketchy third (and much of fourth) quarter, with quarterback J.J. McCarthy — the Rose Bowl offensive MVP — throwing for three touchdowns.
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Michigan players celebrated for 24 hours before getting back to work in preparation for Washington, a winner of Texas. They’re not satisfied even with 14-0, ready to finish the job that started last January.
“Just having the month that we had to prepare, I just wanted to leave no stone unturned,” Michigan junior McCarthy said. “Going back to 2017, 2018, 2019, all the way up until the present moment, just making sure that I was locked in on all cylinders in every situation, fourth quarter, overtime, 4th down and that big completion to Blake (on fourth and 2). Just everything about it was just making sure I was the most prepared guy on the field so I could go out there and help my teammates as best I can.
“It just means everything. Just think about how far we’ve come, all the hardships that we went through as a team and as a brotherhood. Just being able to do it on this stage. It’s been 26 years since Michigan won in this building, and the second most appearance out of any college in the entire country playing in this game. It’s just amazing the way it happened, but ultimately it’s everything that [Michigan] Coach [Jim Harbaugh] said. We can’t do it without the unity that we have. Everything that we went through this entire year made us unbreakable.”
It was “glorious,” Harbaugh said at the postgame podium after several interviews on the field. His parents couldn’t stop smiling. His assistant coaches had their families join them on the field, many of them in tears.
His Michigan players are family to him, too, Harbaugh has said many times. He praised McCarthy yet again, calling him the best U-M quarterback of all time.
“It was right where we wanted to be,” Harbaugh said. “It’s everything that we worked for, everything that we prepared for, everything we hoped for, everything we trained and strained for. The team was just not going to be denied.
“J.J. said it when he walked off this same podium last year in the semifinal game. He said, ‘we’re going to be back.’ What he told me was not only are we going to be back, we’re going to win. There he did, and in overtime against Alabama. I think the last quarterback to win in overtime against Alabama was none other than Tom Brady.”
With one more win, McCarthy will do something Brady never did at Michigan — win a national title. Chris Balas and former U-M offensive lineman Doug Skene break down the win and more in today’s video podcast.
