Jim Harbaugh, Michigan football reflect on 'perfect' season that ends with national title

HOUSTON — Michigan football's Jim Harbaugh, Blake Corum and Will Johnson were 30 minutes behind schedule for their obligations Tuesday morning.

It had been a pretty late night.

The Wolverines (15-0) capped their first undefeated season since 1997 on Monday evening with a 34-13 win over Washington in the national championship game at NRG Stadium just more than 10 hours prior and on a few hours of sleep and a whole lot of adrenaline, the triumvirate did their best to describe the feeling of a dream come true.

"So often the goal is to, you're chasing perfection, and it's hard to be perfect," Harbaugh said. "It rarely comes around. You hope to achieve excellence along the way. But, gosh, it's perfect. It was a perfect 15-0. Congratulations. It wasn't just resolution, guys just talking about it, it was repetition, daily repetition.

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"Good, old-fashioned hard work and teamwork."

The Wolverines had done it. It really had happened.

Donovan Edwards did set a CFP title game record as the first player to score two touchdowns rushes of more than 40 yards; on his first two touches of the game, no less, to put U-M up 14-3 in the first quarter. Blake Corum did cap his historic career with a performance worthy of his future College Football Hall of Fame status: 21 carries, 134 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns to put the game on ice.

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Johnson and Mike Sainristil, the two best defensive backs on the best defense in the nation, both came up with an interception in the second half, which led to points. And Harbaugh's crowning achievement came with his parents, siblings, children and grandchildren among the crowd in Houston.

"It was a great feeling last night, and (just) as good is the one waking up this morning," Harbaugh said. "This wasn't a dream. That was real. We're national champs. And we're going to look forward to the happy flight back to Ann Arbor today, and the parade. Haven't been in too many parades. That will be fun."

Harbaugh reminisced about the cold day in late December of 2014 when he was brought back to Ann Arbor, with the sole goal that the moment he was on stage celebrating would come, about how it was he and his father who wrote the script for a 2015 hype video narrated by James Earl Jones and about the trials and tribulations there were up until this point.

He said yes, the team felt like Ohio State's J.T. Barrett was short on fourth down in overtime in Columbus. He also said he felt the team came up short in its in recent CFPs, but having so many former players in the crowd — Mazi Smith, Hassan Haskins, Jabrill Peppers, DJ Turner, Olusegun Oluwatimi, Cesar Ruiz and Andrew Stueber among them — made it feel like a full circle moment.

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"Sometimes you've got to go through those things," he said. "You've got to go through things to get where you are meant to be. Just lean on the counsel of God and the Holy Spirit ... there's a time and a place."

As Corum and Johnson thanked their coach for guiding this historic quest, Harbaugh reminisced on his own former coach, the one who coined the phrases like "the team, the team, the team" and "those who stay will be champions."

Though Harbaugh is still concerned Bo Schembechler's first thought would've been about "coming off the ball with lower pad level," he believes U-M's all-time winningest coach would've been proud that the Wolverines put up more than 300 yards on the ground and averaged 8 yards a carry in a title fight.

"He'd really love Blake Corum," Harbaugh added. "He would love him like we do. Makes you feel good."

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Something else that feels good? Harbaugh now gets to join his brother, John, and father, Jack, at the metaphorical adult's table. John won a Super Bowl title over Jim with the Ravens in February 2013 while Jack won a Division I-AA (now FCS) championship with Western Kentucky in 2002. Harbaugh admitted he'd felt a bit left out the past decade.

"I can hold my head up high now, at least be at their same level," he said. "You feel like you're the only guy. Not anymore. So, yeah, it feels great."

Corum is headed to the NFL, while Johnson is returning for his junior. There's nothing left for Corum to achieve; a unanimous All-American who propelled U-M to a 40-3 record the past three seasons with three consecutive Big Ten championships, three victories over Ohio State, a Rose Bowl win over Alabama and now a national title over Washington.

As for Johnson, who was an All-Big Ten selection this season as a true sophomore and is 28-1 in his two-year career, he wants to soak in the moment but was asked to peak forward to next season and what possibilities may lie ahead.

The Wolverines are expected to lose more than a dozen players to the NFL draft, which is before undecided juniors like J.J. McCarthy, Junior Colson, Donovan Edwards, Rod Moore and Makari Paige among others make their decision.

But Johnson is among the returners, along with Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, as well as depth that's percolated through the system for years, and incoming transfers.

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"I mean, we had a great group of guys that will be back next year that are super talented in my class, and other guys that will come back, too," Johnson said. "So I'm just ready to keep enjoying this while I can and get back to work whenever we get started again."

With that, the Wolverines were off to Ann Arbor to continue the enjoyment, their journey finally complete or as Corum said as Monday night turned to Tuesday morning: "business is finished."

"This team, Team 144, you know how I feel about them, I think" Harbaugh said. "They are 'the team.'"

Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Harbaugh, Michigan football reflect on championship night to remember