Credit to ESPN.com Paulo Uggetti and Andrea Adelson
PASADENA, Calif. — Just over an hour after top-seeded Michigan had outlasted No. 4 Alabama in a 27-20 overtime thriller at the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl, Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy slipped back into the empty stadium to soak it all in.
After engineering a game-tying drive in the fourth quarter and a game-winning drive in overtime that helped secure undefeated Michigan’s first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship game, McCarthy was still wearing his jersey as he stood near the Alabama end zone, gazed across the 100 yards of grass and squatted down to pick up some confetti.
“This is the greatest quarterback in University of Michigan college football history,” coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game, with McCarthy by his side. “Got a long way to go to get to where Tom Brady eventually got to, which is the GOAT, but in a college career there’s been nobody at Michigan better than J.J. I know we talk about it, an amalgamation of quarterbacks. He is that guy.”
McCarthy, like he had been all season long, was not flashy, nor did he produce plays that will fill highlight reels for years to come. But when it mattered most, the junior quarterback — who finished with 221 passing yards and three touchdowns en route to earning the Offensive Player of the Game award — ensured his name will be remembered in Wolverines lore.
After holding a halftime lead that the Tide flipped in their favor with a touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter, Michigan’s title game hopes fell on McCarthy’s shoulders. The past two years for McCarthy had ended here, with his team losing in the College Football Playoff semifinal.
With a third straight year of elimination in the balance, McCarthy and the Michigan offense went to work, stitching together a gritty 75-yard drive that featured a clutch 27-yard pass from McCarthy to running back Blake Corum on fourth-and-2. With 1:34 left in regulation, McCarthy found wideout Roman Wilson for a 4-yard, game-tying TD that sent the game to overtime — only the second overtime game in the 110 editions of the Rose Bowl.
“I was calm that fourth quarter, that overtime,” Harbaugh said. “I just felt like there’s nothing that we couldn’t overcome inside of this stadium today.”
In the extra period, McCarthy said Michigan wanted the ball to start. And then the quarterback Harbaugh declared the best in Michigan history handed the baton to one of the best running backs in program history. It took only two plays — an 8-yard run and a 17-yard touchdown run from Corum — to put Michigan ahead.
“It was do or die,” Corum said. “I made a promise to Michigan fans before the season, and I had to stand on what I said. We were able to do what we had to do to come out victorious.”
“Everything I see out of Blake on a day-to-day basis, everything that Blake is — when everyone’s tired, when it’s overtime, he’s going to be that guy that shows out,” McCarthy said. “Just like he does in sprints when we run them in the offseason. It was nothing new for me — it was just amazing the world got to see it.”
Yet despite the effort that McCarthy and the Michigan offense put forth, in the end, it fell to the Wolverines’ defense to make a stop. Alabama’s first overtime possession came down to fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line, and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and his staff had a pretty good idea that Alabama was going to give quarterback Jalen Milroe the ball.
“We just wanted to try to keep him from being able to dictate the terms on that play,” Minter said of Milroe. “We wanted to be the aggressor.”
Milroe kept the ball and attempted to rush up the middle for what would have been a game-tying score. But as he tried to cross the line of scrimmage, a swarm of defenders stopped him in his tracks, sending the Michigan faithful at the Rose Bowl into pandemonium and the team rushing onto the field.
The call, which Harbaugh later said is called “twister,” has a pretty simple directive.
“We just had everybody in there,” Harbaugh said. “It was everybody. Everybody there, everybody to the ball.”
“We wedged all four gaps,” defensive line coach Mike Elston said. “We had a feeling they’d run with him.”
The stop was emblematic of Michigan’s physical dominance throughout the game, which showed itself over the course of the first half. The Wolverines’ defensive linemen turned Alabama’s backfield into their playground, limiting the Tide’s running game to 43 yards in the first half (116 passing yards in the entire game), suffocating their offensive line and sacking Milroe five times.
“The whole month, everyone was talking about Bama this, Bama that. Bama fast. Bama big,” defensive tackle Kenneth Grant said. “We came out and did the unthinkable. No one believed in us from the start. We came out and did it and proved everyone wrong.”
For the better part of the past 15 years, Nick Saban’s Alabama teams have represented not only college football’s paragon, but also the sport’s most physically dominant entity. But during a season in which the Tide constantly were forced to survive rather than impose their will, Michigan’s physicality on both sides of the ball proved to be the end game.
In what was a throwback game that featured 13 punts, eight fumbles (only two of them lost), a missed extra point and plenty of special teams blunders, every point, every snap and every mistake was magnified. And in the end, it was Harbaugh’s team — following back-to-back seasons of losing in the CFP semifinals — that did enough to keep alive its undefeated season and chance to win the program’s first title since the 1997 season.
“First it was Penn State, Penn State were stronger than us. We had to take care of business,” defensive tackle Kris Jenkins said. “And then it was Ohio State, we had to take care of business. Then it was Bama. Time and time again, people doubted us. It didn’t matter the situation. We had to prove to the world, we had to remind to the world what this Block M means, man. Who we are.”
Inside the locker room, players shared Jenkins’ sentiment. One player spoke into a phone and exclaimed, “They said Michigan can’t handle Alabama. They said that!” Another recounted just how much the team had felt overlooked despite the fact it was the top seed playing the fourth seed.
“It’s almost been an unfair advantage, all the things that the team has gone through. We don’t care anymore. Don’t care what people say. Don’t care about anything that comes up. We just know we’re going to overcome it.”
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
“We was getting so disrespected all season, man,” linebacker Michael Barrett said. “All the bulls— that’s been thrown at us, we just overcome it all together. We got some dogs in here, man. We will not be denied.”
In a season bookended by two three-game suspensions for Harbaugh — the first issued preemptively by the school amid an investigation of possible recruiting violations, and the second mandated by the Big Ten over allegations of sign stealing and in-person scouting — and amid plenty of backlash, Michigan’s players could stand on the results that had been earned on the field. They said the turmoil actually made them a better, more cohesive team.
They needed every bit of that cohesion against the Tide, who were a couple of defensive stops away from their seventh trip to the playoff final.
“It’s almost been an unfair advantage, all the things that the team has gone through,” Harbaugh said. “We don’t care anymore. Don’t care what people say. Don’t care about anything that comes up. We just know we’re going to overcome it.”
“Just think about how far we’ve come, all the hardships that we went through as a team and as a brotherhood,” McCarthy said. “It’s been 26 years since Michigan won in this building, and the second most appearances out of any college in the entire country playing in this game. It’s just amazing the way it happened. We’ve got one more game left, so the job is not finished yet.”
Michigan next faces No. 2 Washington, a 37-31 winner over No. 3 Texas in Monday night’s Sugar Bowl semifinal, in the College Football Playoff title game on Jan. 8 in Houston. The Wolverines opened as 5-point favorites at sportsbook ESPN BET with the over/under total at 55.5.
“It’s what it means to these guys, to our players the most,” Harbaugh said when asked what the moment means to him, and what it would mean to win the national championship. “To them, to be champions. For their parents, to have their son be a champion. Their brothers and sisters, their grandparents. For our coaches. For my kids, to have a dad be champion. Then my parents.
“Just those people that get to feel what that’s like … my ecstatic joy is for our players and our coaches and our fans and our families. That they get to experience that joy of being a champion.”
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NEW ORLEANS — Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. turned in one of the most dominant performances in College Football Playoff history on Monday night. Yet there he stood on the sideline with one second remaining on the clock, watching as Texas stood 13 yards away from completing an improbable comeback.
Quinn Ewers took the fourth-down snap and threw the ball into the corner of the end zone for Adonai Mitchell. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Ewers threw to Mitchell at nearly the same spot for a 1-yard score. Washington’s Elijah Jackson was on the coverage for that touchdown.
He was on the coverage again with the game on the line. Jackson said he knew Ewers would look to Mitchell again. The cornerback was ready this time. Jackson leaped into the air to bat the ball away as time expired, sealing a wild 37-31 win for the Huskies in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Now, Washington will play Michigan in the CFP national title game on Jan. 8 in Houston for the Huskies’ first national championship opportunity since 1991. All Jackson could think after he made the play was, “Dang, we’re going to the national championship!” Then he went to find his mom in the stands.
“That’s the moment people dream of,” Jackson said. “Everybody wants the last play. Everybody wants the game on their shoulders.”
Though Penix threw for 430 yards — the fourth-best passing game in CFP history — Washington could never quite get complete control. Texas made it a one-score game twice in the final seven minutes as it attempted to erase a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit. After closing to 37-31 with 1:09 remaining, Texas attempted an onside kick, but Washington recovered.
After forcing a three-and-out, Texas got the ball back with 45 seconds left and the ball at its 31-yard line. The Longhorns had four attempts to win the game from inside the Huskies’ 15-yard line. But Washington would prevail for its 21st consecutive victory.
“You love seeing a team come through and find a way to win,” Huskies coach Kalen DeBoer said. “The defense had to stay out there and play every down until the very end. So proud of the resiliency and finding another way to win a football game.”
When it was all said and done, Penix went 29-of-38 passing for 430 yards and two touchdowns. As a result, he became the first player with multiple 4,500-yard passing seasons in Pac-12 history.
The decision Penix made to come to Washington in 2022 has helped change the trajectory of the Huskies’ football program. But that all started with the hiring of DeBoer, an offensive mastermind who won three NAIA championships as head coach at the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota before working his way up the FBS ranks and landing at Washington.
One of DeBoer’s first phone calls after taking the job was to Penix, whom he had coached for one season as offensive coordinator at Indiana. Penix wanted to play for DeBoer, noting his comfort level, trust and belief in him not only as a coach but an offensive innovator. In their two years together at Washington, they have won 25 of 27 games and are on the precipice of accomplishing something much greater.
“He set the tone pretty quickly, just made all the throws,” DeBoer said. “This guy really all month was on another level as far as his mission to make sure that this happened, and I think you saw it all week in practice. There was just nothing he was going to let slide by where we would leave a doubt that we were going to find a way to win.”
The program has been more than just Penix, of course. While DeBoer has done an excellent job using the transfer portal, he also has nine sixth-year players who started their careers at Washington under a different coaching staff but were willing to buy in and believe in his message too.
There are other veteran seniors, as well, including wide receiver Rome Odunze and linebacker Bralen Trice, who have taken the lead in helping establish the culture DeBoer wanted to instill.
Despite everything this team has accomplished this season, Washington went into its semifinal against the Longhorns as the underdog — the second straight game where it was not favored to win. That irked the Huskies to the point where they used it as extra motivation.
Not long after the Huskies advanced to the national title game, they were already installed as underdogs — again. The Wolverines opened as 5-point favorites at sportsbook ESPN BET, with the over/under total at 55.5.
“I just think we prove everybody wrong time and time again, and we’ll continue to do that,” Trice said. “You can overlook us all you want, but we go out there and we prove everybody wrong every time.”
Penix, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, took center stage from the start on Monday, dropping one pinpoint pass after another to his deep and talented receiver group. There was a 77-yarder to Ja’Lynn Polk on the opening drive. Then a deep pass over the middle to Odunze. It went on like this the entire game, some beautiful rainbows, others darts and all of them landing where only his receivers could catch them.
Polk and Odunze each had 100 yards receiving as a result. By the time the third quarter ended, Penix had 372 yards passing, two touchdowns and just four incompletions as the Washington fans chanted, “Let’s go, Huskies!”
“I got the best playmakers on the outside. So, they make it easy,” Penix said.
Though Washington threatened to blow the game open after going up 34-21 early in the fourth quarter, Texas hung around, and its defense stepped up to keep the Longhorns in the game.
After Texas running back Jaydon Blue fumbled, Washington could not take advantage and was forced to punt.
On the ensuing drive, Ewers threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell, a transfer from Georgia, to make it 34-28. Mitchell is automatic in the CFP, with a touchdown reception in all five CFP games in which he has played.
“That’s the moment people dream of. Everybody wants the last play. Everybody wants the game on their shoulders.”
Washington CB Elijah Jackson
On the next possession, Penix did what was needed to move Washington down the field, including completing a 32-yard pass to Odunze down the left sideline that was enough to get into field goal range and make it a two-score game before Texas attempted one last comeback.
“The resiliency our team showed in that fourth quarter to find a way to have an opportunity to win the game, I think, is indicative of the character that we have on this team and the men that we have in that locker room,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Those guys are fighters. These fought together. As bleak as it looked there, they never gave up hope, and they believed. And I think that’s how you give yourself a chance at the end.”
Ewers said that on the final two plays — both passes — he was “just looking to give my guys an opportunity to go make a play. At the end of the day, that’s all you can really do.”
Ewers finished 24-of-43 passing for 318 yards and a score. Afterward, the emotions on his face were clear as he fought back tears when he entered the postgame news conference.
“It’s tough, especially losing a close game like this,” Ewers said. “But when you take a step back and you look back at the entire season, I’m proud of the way that we attacked each week. I know the whole team is beyond grateful for this opportunity that we had today, and I think we all played our hearts out.”
Texas just came up one play short. Instead, the spotlight belonged to Penix and the Huskies.
“The job’s not finished,” Penix said. “I feel like it’s definitely going to take more. I’m going to push myself to get this team more next week. And, man, we’re just super excited for the opportunity.”