Michigan football is the last team standing – it feels like their destiny

HOUSTON — The moment had finally arrived, the one this Michigan football team had fantasized about for an entire year. Maize confetti floated from above inside NRG Stadium. Jim Harbaugh beamed a wide smile. J.J. McCarthy donned a cap fit for a champion. Mike Sainristil basked in the glow of victory. This was the joyous scene Monday at the end of the Wolverines’ 34-13 conquest of Washington in the College Football Playoff national title game.

It was also the culmination of a three-year climb from the nadir of Harbaugh’s tenure to the top of college football. At the beginning of this journey, the final destination appeared unreachable. But towards the end, it felt as if Michigan’s arrival here, at the summit, was inevitable.

After all, eleven months ago, running back Blake Corum stood at center court at Crisler Center and declared, “We’re gonna win the national championship and go down in history.” It was a bold statement but one made with absolute conviction. As the NFL beckoned, Corum returned to school hell-bent on completing that mission. So did offensive guards Trevor Keegan and Zak Zinter, sixth-year linebacker Michael Barrett and Michigan’s cerebral cornerback, Mike Sainristil. They were among a group of talented, battle-tested upperclassmen on a roster that boasted as many as 20 potential draft picks, in Harbaugh’s estimation.

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It was his best team since he returned to Ann Arbor in December 2014 to revive his alma mater’s sagging football program and restore it as a contender. The Wolverines were ranked No. 2 in the preseason, and it appeared nothing could stop them once they took the field for the first time in September. During their march toward a perfect record, they weathered controversies, distractions and insults. Harbaugh missed six games after he was suspended twice as his program became the subject of two NCAA investigations. The first centered on impermissible recruiting and coaching activities. The second revolved around a cheating scandal that surfaced in October after a former Michigan staffer was found to have concocted a “years-long” in-person advanced scouting scheme designed to steal the play signals of future opponents. The legitimacy of the Wolverines’ recent accomplishments was suddenly called into question, and their competitors begged for them to be punished.

The team felt the animosity. So did the school’s administration, which tried to wage a revenge campaign against the Big Ten after the conference moved to penalize Harbaugh in November. It was Michigan vs. Everybody, in their eyes.

“At the end of the day, it's everybody inside of Schembechler Hall that we care about,” Sainristil said this past weekend. “That's the voices that matter to us. I think having that mindset is what's allowed us to be here today.”

It supplied them with the fuel to zoom through their final stretch with victories over Penn State, Maryland, and Ohio State. It gave them the extra juice to claim their third straight Big Ten title. It then powered them past SEC juggernaut Alabama at the Rose Bowl during a taut, tense overtime victory that placed the Wolverines on the precipice of glory.

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“We will not be denied,” sixth-year linebacker Michael Barrett said after that thrilling triumph on Jan. 1.

Instead, they kept going, deep into the heart of Texas, where Monday they realized their dreams after outlasting a fearsome Washington team armed with the best passing attack in the nation.

From the opening snap, Michigan tried to neutralize the Huskies by playing their rugged brand of football. Down after down, the Wolverines’ offensive line won at the point of attack – knocking back Washington’s defensive front and opening cavernous holes for the talented backfield behind them. Donovan Edwards was the initial beneficiary. He surged ahead on a 41-yard touchdown run that capped an impressive 84-yard opening drive. Eight minutes later, he made a triumphant return to the end zone, when he located a crease on the right side and raced through it during a 46-yard sprint. Just like that, Michigan was up 14-3. Its fans roared with excitement, sensing their beloved Wolverines were in top form.

The Huskies probably did, too.

They had been staggered by Michigan’s early ambush. A team that won its final ten games by single-digit margins appeared punch-drunk as it struggled to stay in the fight. The Huskies’ defense wobbled, surrendering 209 rushing yards in the first half. Even its high-octane offense sputtered at crucial moments.

During one second-quarter possession, Washington committed two pre-snap penalties in a span of three plays. Then Michael Penix Jr., as precise a passer as there is at this level, inexplicably missed Rome Odunze on a fourth-down throw. It wasn’t a fatal mistake. But it was an unusual one, and on a night like this one, when the margin for error was so thin, it was costly. Penix couldn’t do enough to lift the Huskies even after they regained their balance and their defense stiffened.

It was a pleasant surprise for Harbaugh. Last week, he called the Heisman Trophy runner-up a “super great player” with deadly accuracy. On this night, however, he didn’t perform at an optimal level. He completed 27 of 51 passes for 255 yards, a touchdown, and two regrettable interceptions – the last of which set up the game-clinching score by Corum (who else?) late in the fourth quarter.

The stat line paled in comparison to the eye-popping one Penix posted when he torched the Wolverines at another school, at a much different time. That was 2020, when Penix was at Indiana and Michigan had begun to crash toward a 2-4 record that marked the low point of the Harbaugh era. Ever since then, the Wolverines have been on the rise, transforming into one of the best programs in the country with Harbaugh leading the charge.

Together, they toppled Ohio State in 2021, flipped the rivalry with the Buckeyes, and seized control of the Big Ten. They forged a 25-game winning streak within the conference. They then broke through the last remaining wall in the College Football Playoff as this new year began with a dramatic victory over the Crimson Tide. That set the stage for Monday night, when the Wolverines won a hard-fought game against Washington and reached the apex of college football by winning their first national championship since 1997. It took a little bit of everything for Michigan to get to this point.

But as they neared the pinnacle, it felt like this was their destiny. Michigan couldn’t be stopped, which is why it was the last team standing – looking down at all the rest.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football is last team standing – it feels like their destiny