Michigan barrels through one final obstacle, tops Washington for CFP title
When emblematic running back Blake Corum, that bulwark of ramming toughness, coursed into the end zone on a 12-yard run with 7:09 left, a pretty good title game that Michigan always led went from one-sided to close to just about decided at 27-13. An ensuing 81-yard interception return from the great defensive back Mike Sainristil, which set up another touchdown, loosed an even bigger boom from the Michigan majority of the 72,808 at NRG Stadium. Michigan (15-0) would win with what brought it, its throwback pugnacity, reflected in its 303 rushing yards, including 134 for Corum and the 104 with two early long touchdowns for Donovan Edwards.
That reflection, often desirably gnarled and bloody, also turned up in the numbers for decorated Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who couldn’t find the precision that lit up his brilliant Sugar Bowl national semifinal against Texas. When he could find receivers, almost always on short balls on his 27-for-51 night, the Michigan secondary showed its adept tackling, often in short yardage. The point total for Washington (14-1) counted as its lowest of its joyride of a season under second-year coach Kalen DeBoer.
All of it meant that the Wolverines program had gone from 168-91 (.648) across the seasons from 2000 to 2020 and from 49-22 (.690) across the first six seasons of prominent alumnus and Coach Jim Harbaugh to 40-3 (.930) these past three seasons, all with College Football Playoff berths, this one with a title.
Corum, named the offensive player of the game, put a happy stamp on the win from the victory podium in the immediate aftermath of the title. “I’ll leave y’all with this: Business is finished!” the running back said.
Harbaugh brought to the podium his father, Jack, the 2002 Football Championship Subdivision national champion as coach at Western Kentucky. Jack Harbaugh, 84, took the microphone and echoed his son’s trademark saying: “Who’s got it better than us!” The lingering Michigan crowd roared, and Jim Harbaugh followed by saying, “Fifteen and oh. It’s a spectacular team.”
In the meat of its season, near the ending, that team beat three teams ranked in the top four at the time: Ohio State, Alabama and Washington,
The Wolverines also reached here through considerable noise in a season loud with a scandal of Michigan’s own making — the famed saga, revealed in late October by Yahoo Sports, in which a Michigan staffer conducted an elaborate scheme of sign-stealing from future opponents, forbidden by the NCAA in a 30-year-old rule. The NCAA continues its investigation with no telling how it might affect the standing of this clinched title.
As the final bout began, barely had the Michigan-heavy but Washington-strong crowd gotten settled in when the Wolverines began making galloping runs through gaping lanes amid galvanizing roars. Those early plays helped the Michigan offense, not the program’s most noted unit of the moment, hog some spotlight on untroubled drives of 84 and 86 yards, run up a 229-74 advantage in first-quarter yardage and render the Huskies unusually hapless.
First, after a batch of short but forward-moving plays, Michigan’s Kalel Mullings, the third member of the running back armada, broke free in the middle for an easy 14 yards to the Washington 37-yard line. Then after quarterback J.J. McCarthy took a four-yard sack, that sack proved harmless when Edwards darted toward the middle, found an unwanted five-man clot there, bounced out left and started moving through open terrain clear to end zone inside the left pylon.
Worse for Washington, the next Michigan possession, at 7-3, looked easier. First, McCarthy threw a pinpoint ball to the deep right corner to Roman Wilson for 37 yards to the Washington 46. Then, another play after that, Edwards started slightly left, didn’t like the scene there and stayed untouched as he hurried out to the right to unbothered territory. Forty-six yards up the field, he had another touchdown that gave him two carries for 87 yards, gave Michigan 178 rushing yards on eight carries in the first quarter and gave Wolverines the 14-3 lead they took to the second.
While the hint of a rout perhaps did not match the mismatch of Georgia’s 65-7 win over TCU last January in suburban Los Angeles, it looked emphatic nonetheless on the last play of the first quarter. That’s when Corum, Michigan’s ramming knot of a runner, found himself going merrily through the middle and then veering left to roam free and alone up the sideline for 59 yards. With that, the Michigan noise reached untold decibels, but then Thaddeus Dixon caught Corum at the Washington 20, and the Huskies got a stop on Jabbar Muhammad’s fine defense on a third-down short pass. Instead of 21-3, the score stayed 17-3.
“Just misfits,” Washington linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio said of the defenses on those plays, later saying, “We got it corrected, but in a game like this we can’t make explosive mistakes like that.”
All this early while, Penix looked perhaps excessively amped. The extreme precision with which he reigned over the Sugar Bowl national semifinal against Texas — 29 for 38, 430 yards — departed him for two notable groans that might cause winces for a while. The first, less agonizing, came on a third-and-goal pass to the back of the end zone toward the great wide receiver Rome Odunze that flew over Odunze’s hands. The second, more agonizing, came on Washington’s fourth-and-seven try from the Michigan 47-yard line early in the second quarter. On that, Penix backed up to spot Odunze running free behind two defenders on the deep right corner, but the throw strayed far enough high and wide right that Odunze barely touched it even after contorting himself to his left.
“Hurt,” Penix said of the aftermath, soon adding, “In the locker room, it’s just a lot of love.”
Still, the Huskies clearly weren’t the type to accept blowout. They got themselves together, and when Ulofoshio’s defense stalled a fourth-and-three try from the Washington 38, the Huskies set up 4:43 before halftime, taking 11 plays to go 61 yards. They even treated their fans to another palpitation on fourth down from the 3, but Penix threw to Jalen McMillan in the back of the end zone to create a 17-10 halftime score that hadn’t looked probable.
