Wolverine Watch: Michigan Turns The Tide, Heads For Title Game
By John Borton
Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh thrust the trophy awarded to Rose Bowl winners skyward, and soon boomed out a familiar line, one ringing truer than ever: “WHO’S GOT IT BETTER THAN US? NOOOOOOOBODY!”
Only one college football team in the nation even has the chance to have it better than the Wolverines in the early days of 2024. Michigan’s cliffhanger 27-20 overtime victory over Alabama in the Rose Bowl pulled the Wolverines within one win of the prize they’ve been talking about all year — a national championship. When it’s national title or bust, there’s little margin for error.
Harbaugh’s team made a few errors on Pasadena’s sacred sod in the sunset hours of Jan. 1 — including some critical ones. But with their backs against the wall so hard they bore brick imprints, Harbaugh’s crew tore bricks OUT of the wall and used them to beat ‘Bama into College Football Playoff oblivion. They’ve seen adversity this year. When it bubbled up again, they fought back with everything they had.
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“It’s a togetherness!” Harbaugh declared. “We’re so together! So connected! We were going to overcome anything that was inside this stadium.”
Michigan grit began long ago
“The fight started week one,” junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy said, when asked what powered Michigan to the touchdown sending the game to overtime. “All we’ve been through, all the adversity. A team that goes through that adversity, it can’t get to the heights we’re trying to reach. So I feel we just did a tremendous job of responding to all of that, and pushing through. We’ve got one more game left — the job’s not finished yet.”
No, it’s not. But the Wolverines almost were.
After all, they were facing impenetrable Alabama, in a Playoff dubbed by some the Alabama Invitational. They were staring down the mighty SEC, a conference against which the Big Ten champion obviously stood no chance at all. They were trying to buck their own struggles in bowl games and Playoff semifinals, trying to show this team is indeed different.
They demonstrated it in the first half, building a 13-10 halftime lead. They stemmed the Tide with 5 first-half sacks of quarterback Jalen Milroe, and stonewalled invincible Alabama to a mere 96 total yards in the opening 30 minutes.
But there were cracks in the armor, for sure. Dropped passes. Two muffed punts, including one gifting the Crimson Tide their only touchdown of the first half. A botched extra-point try. A miss on a makable field goal. And an offense completely MIA in the third quarter, with 23 yards and 1 first down therein.
U-M rallies in the darkest hour
Suddenly, Alabama led, 20-13, with only 4:41 to play. Raise your hand if you despaired a bit at that point, feeling like you’d seen this ending before.
Not this time. Not this team.
Michigan faced fourth-and-2 at its own 33, one play away from Playoff heartbreak yet again. But a toss to senior tailback Blake Corum (19 carries, 81 yards, 1 touchdown) kept the Wolverines alive. McCarthy (17-for-27, 221 yards, 3 TDs) then hit senior wideout Roman Wilson with a 29-yard strike that an Alabama defensive lineman actually tipped. Two plays later, McCarthy found Wilson with the four-yard TD toss to tie the game and send it to overtime.
In the extra period, Michigan made every Billy Joe Bob Jimbo declaring ‘Bama’s vast superiority choke on his MoonPie. Corum broke off an eight-yard run. He followed that up with a 17-yard, spinning, hard-cut burst into the end zone, shocking the Alabama defense and putting the Tide in deep trouble.
Milroe (116 yards passing, 63 rushing) fought ‘Bama back inside the Michigan 5. But on fourth-and-goal from the Wolverines’ 3, he attempted to bolt up the middle and found himself hit with an overwhelming tide — of blue. Michigan’s defense swarmed him, setting off a celebration not seen by Michigan fans in Pasadena since 1997.
A bigger tide to turn
One more win, and the party grows even bigger.
McCarthy clenched a long-stemmed rose in his teeth, beaming while not letting it escape. He’d not touched a rose all week, just like hockey players don’t touch the Stanley Cup until they’ve captured it. Now, nobody could take this one away, just like the SEC’s best couldn’t take Michigan’s spot in the national title game.
“It’s indescribable,” McCarthy said. “The last two years, being able to watch the opposing team celebrate, it’s just different when I see the maize and blue confetti on the field. I’m nothing without this head coach, nothing without my teammates. Nothing without that defense. It’s just so amazing.”
Amazing … and reality. Michigan’s defense wound up with 6 sacks on Milroe, and an iron curtain when it mattered most. Michigan’s offense looked completely turned by the Tide after halftime … until it found a way. And the Wolverines packed up their travel bag of potentially season-ending errors and tossed it into the Pacific Ocean.
Not this time. Not this team.
“What are you going to do when adversity hits?” Corum challenged. “We got some adversity today. A little sloppy, but we came together as one. I’m my brother’s keeper. I know my brothers have my back, and I told ‘em. If we score and send this thing to overtime, we’re going to win. We came out on top. I’ll see you in Houston!”
Yes, they will. To a man, the Michigan Men repeated the mantra: The job’s not finished.
But now they know, and feel it more than ever. They’re close enough to gang-tackle their dream.
