Michigan football's rise from 2020 debacle to national title game is made for Hollywood

PASADENA, Calif. — In the shadow of Tinseltown, an ending that seemed as if it was ripped straight from the pages of a Hollywood script unfolded near the north end zone of the Rose Bowl, where Michigan football and Alabama were locked in a taut, tense affair that carried into overtime. The College Football Playoff semifinal had come down to one play. Alabama stood 3 yards from the end zone, down by seven points, its fate up in the air, staring at fourth down. This was it.

From there, the suspense only grew. Each team burned a timeout to suss out what the other was doing.

“We were playing Cover Zero,” Wolverines linebacker Junior Colson said. “Coach was telling us all the time, like, this is the moment we were built for. This is the moment we come out here to play for. We knew exactly what was going to happen.”

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Seconds later, Jalen Milroe took the shotgun snap and darted forward into a crowd of bodies, looking for a crease. But 6 feet short of the end zone, he was thwarted. The Wolverines had done it, winning 27-20. This was the point when the credits would have started to roll, when the hero would have been carried off in triumph, when the feel-good story would have been completed.

But, as linebacker Michael Barrett reminded his audience of reporters afterwards, “We’ve still got one more game left.”

The impending national championship showdown with Washington on Monday in Houston is expected to mark the conclusion of the Wolverines’ three-year epic, where they rose from the ashes of their somber 2-4 season in 2020 and soared towards the top of college football. They have been led by a fascinating main character, Jim Harbaugh, who has authored a comeback story for the ages by propelling his team to a 39-3 record over three seasons while inviting controversy in the process. Harbaugh has been a central figure throughout this saga, which has unfolded in chapters. The first, in 2021, was the rebound. It was there when Harbaugh overhauled his staff, the program revamped its culture and Michigan retooled its defense with a new system.

The changes sparked a renaissance of sorts and supplied the Wolverines with the juice needed to conquer Ohio State for the first time in 10 years. The victory over the Buckeyes on that snow-specked field in Ann Arbor flipped the rivalry between the two schools and rewrote the narrative of Harbaugh’s tenure, which had been a disappointment until that point. It also launched Michigan toward its first Big Ten title in 17 years and provided a segue to the next part of this story, when the Wolverines proved they were masters of their own conference but pretenders on the sport’s biggest stage.

The loss to TCU in last season's CFP semifinal in the Fiesta Bowl served as the shocking finale, spoiling a 13-win campaign, sparking a reckoning at Schembechler Hall and setting up the storylines for the third and final installment — the most compelling one of all.

It began in February with Blake Corum telling a Crisler Center crowd that Michigan would win the national championship and go down in history. It continued with the emergence of some wild subplots, including a pair of three-game suspensions levied against Harbaugh, the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal that exploded in October and a sudden skirmish between Michigan and the Big Ten that transpired during the toughest stretch of the Wolverines’ schedule. Then, after all of that, Michigan was forced to confront its last remaining bogeyman: The SEC, in the form of its most prestigious program, Alabama. This CFP matchup was made for the big screen, with the cinematic backdrop provided by the San Gabriel Mountains, a setting sun and the classic Rose Bowl field bathed in red and blue.

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“It was picture perfect, man,” Barrett said afterwards.

Then it somehow got better.

From the first snap, the Wolverines showed they were ready to fight the Crimson Tide until the end. They sacked Milroe six times, flummoxing Alabama’s mammoth offensive line and bottling up its versatile quarterback with an array of well-designed pressures. They also returned fire multiple times, showing resolve. After surrendering an early score, they regained their footing and surged past the Tide before halftime, as J.J. McCarthy whipped a 38-yard touchdown pass to his old high school teammate Tyler Morris.

Then, when Alabama snatched back the lead in the fourth quarter, they rallied again. A comatose offense suddenly sprung to life during a 75-yard march replete with big plays from McCarthy, Corum and intrepid receiver Roman Wilson. The talented triumvirate carried Michigan to the tying score with 94 seconds remaining in regulation. That Corum was the one who put the Wolverines over the top in overtime with a rugged 17-yard dash to the end zone seemed too good to be true. After all, the tenacious running back is the closest thing to a heroic figure on Michigan’s roster. He arrived in Ann Arbor four years ago, when the program had entered its darkest times. He helped the Wolverines break the shackles of mediocrity soon thereafter. Then, he overcame his own personal adversity — a torn left ACL 13½ months ago.

Corum didn’t want his stirring story at Michigan to come to its conclusion Monday on this field.

“Do we want this to be the last of us, the last of us playing together?” he asked his teammates when Michigan’s back was against the wall.

No, they did not.

So, they mustered up the energy to make one final stand in overtime.

“Glorious,” Harbaugh said.  “It was right where we wanted to be. It's everything that we worked for, everything that we prepared for, everything we hoped for, everything we trained and strained for.”

The final scene of the Rose Bowl would have been the perfect ending to this riveting drama that has elapsed over the past three seasons.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. There is still one game to go.

Maybe when it is over, Harbaugh will be a champion. Maybe he’ll even ride off into the sunset, deep in the heart of Texas.

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

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football hopes to write another Hollywood ending in Houston