Jim Harbaugh and Michigan shrugged off all distractions to prove they're No. 1 | Bohls
HOUSTON — Tell us again why this team needed to steal signs.
Remind us why this team even needs a head coach on the premises.
Clue us in on how Michigan's defense could possibly be any better.
Actually, don’t bother. The college football world already has more than enough evidence to understand why the top-ranked Wolverines are the supreme team in the land.
Distractions. What distractions?
Not even a pair of suspensions of the wackiest coach of them all, Jim Harbaugh, for half the season could derail this bunch. This team didn't cringe from adversity or controversy. It ate them for lunch.
And if there were any doubters remaining, surely they were convinced of the Wolverines’ might by what was as thorough a whipping on Monday night as there has been in this 10-year College Football Playoff history.
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They didn’t so much just beat the Washington Huskies 34-13 as they crushed them and made the entire Pac-12 disappear. First, they grabbed Washington as well as Oregon, USC and UCLA from that league and will assimilate them into the Big Ten this summer, but then rudely introduced Washington to Big Ten football at the highest level.
As if that weren’t bad enough, the Huskies (14-1) will host Michigan this October without Heisman runner-up Michael Penix Jr., who was hardly recognizable from the star who ripped apart Texas in the Sugar Bowl semifinal.
That October rematch of Monday’s CFP finalists may not be all that inviting since the Wolverines could return some of the nine first-team All-Big Ten selections like quarterback J.J. McCarthy and cornerback Will Johnson and a number of the seven second-team all-conference choices. Texas will deal with it first-hand itself with a collision at Ann Arbor in September.
Not that Harbaugh wanted to go there yet. He’s still soaking up what Michigan accomplished in 2023 with its first national title since 1997 and its first outright championship since 1948.
When reporters baited him with questions about his potential NFL future, he replied, “I just want to enjoy this. Can a guy have that? Does it always have to be what’s next?”
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What’s next may be more of the same because whether he’s at the helm or he bolts for an NFL job and offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore succeeds him, the foundation is there. Michigan is the new Clemson. This may hardly be the greatest team ever, but it might be the most resolved and resilient after beating everyone in the Big Ten, beating No. 2 Washington and No. 4 Alabama in the playoffs and taking on all comers.
Under Harbaugh, this proud program has rattled off 40 wins in its last 43 games, won all but one of its last 27 Big Ten games, beaten Ohio State three years running and now topped it off with a national title in arguably the greatest season in school history.
“Now I get to sit at the big person’s table,” Harbaugh said. “They can’t keep me at the little table anymore.”
The Wolverines made sure of that and gave their head coach equal bragging rights to father Jack with his title at Western Kentucky and brother John and his Super Bowl title with the Ravens (at Jim’s expense). The tone was set early.
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They quickly built a 17-3 lead by the fourth play of the second quarter at NRG Stadium and allowed only a single field goal in the second half to the most potent passing attack in the country to cruise to their first national championship since 1997. Penix was chased all over the field and misfired on 24 of his 51 throws, including two interceptions in the second half.
Yes, the old four-team CFP model that's being replaced went out not so much with a bang as it did a blockbuster performance by the most complete team in the sport. No. 1 Michigan crushed No. 2 Washington, and it should have been worse.
And it might have been, had Harbaugh not been a little hard-headed and abandoned the run at times on a night when the unbeaten Big Ten champs had a pair of 100-yard rushers and totaled 303 yards on the ground. That romp was the second-most ever in a national championship game behind Nebraska’s 524 against Florida in the 1995 Fiesta.
Heck, both Michigan running backs Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards topped the century mark and with seven minutes left in the third quarter. Corum, who had led all FBS backs with 25 touchdowns this season, scored twice as did Edwards, the five-star kid from suburban Detroit who rekindled memories of his breakout 216-yard showing last season against the Buckeyes.
Heck, McCarthy’s got decent wheels himself. Actually, it was his 22-yard scramble out of the shadow of his own goalposts with Michigan protecting a 20-13 lead that steeled the Wolverines’ resolve, flipped the field and denied Washington any shred of momentum.
“They gave me a little crease,” said McCarthy, who needed just 10 completions to keep Washington at bay, “and the rest was history.”
Perfect and undeniable history with a dose of validation.
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And their approach was as easy as A, B and C. Run the ball. Play hard-hitting, aggressive, sure-tackling defense. Force a couple of turnovers. Run the ball some more. And harass Penix and splatter those dynamic Huskies’ receivers on every play.
“We don’t wait on anybody else to make a play,” Corum said. “When a play needs to be made, we’ll make it because we’ve got a lot of playmakers.”
Michigan truly embraced its role as college football’s villains to the point it adopted the mantra of Michigan vs. Everybody. Didn’t matter that the Wolverines were swept up in a preposterous sign-stealing scandal that involved a clandestine design by a low-level aide who went to road games to spy on future Michigan opponents.
Suspend Harbaugh for six games with two separate three-game stints, including the final three games of the regular season? Who cares. Didn’t cause a blip as Moore took the reins and kept the team on track.
Worried that Alabama’s streaking Jalen Milroe and mastermind Nick Saban would run and coach circles around Michigan? Never happened. Harbaugh’s bunch sacked the Crimson Tide quarterback six times and came back to win the Rose Bowl in heart-stopping fashion in overtime.
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None of the obstacles came close to derailing Michigan.
“It went exactly how we wanted it to go,” Harbaugh said. “We stood strong and tall because we knew we were innocent.”
The Penix who dissected Texas’ defense the week before in New Orleans was nowhere to be seen. After passing for 430 yards and a pair of touchdowns with only nine incompletions against the Longhorns, he was pressured into a pedestrian showing that totaled just 255 yards and included two detrimental interceptions, one returned for 81 yards by cornerback Mike Sainristil that came very close to being a pick-six.
Didn’t matter because Michigan finished off the deal two plays later with the second of Corum’s two scores to seal the victory.
What distractions?
The maize and blue were so in control that for a big duration of the game, they were amazing and blew-their-doors-off efficient.
And Harbaugh? Well, he did allow one little glimpse into his future.
The quirky, 60-year-old maverick had promised his team he’d get a tattoo if it completed a 15-0 season. He said he’ll commemorate the 1,004 wins in history that stamps Michigan as the winningest program in all of football.
“I have no ink on my body,” he said. “No tattoos anywhere. But I’m getting a tattoo probably on my right shoulder since I’m left-handed. And an M, too. A maize and blue M. And a thousand in Roman numerals. Or 1,004. My favorite number.”
And counting. Wherever his future takes him.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Michigan football, coach Jim Harbaugh beat Washington for CFP title
