ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Michigan is the winningest program in the history of college football, but Monday’s victory over Alabama in the Rose Bowl might have been the best of them all.
It’s difficult to put into words the stakes that faced the Wolverines on Monday night. It wasn’t just a national semifinal. It wasn’t just a third chance to win a College Football Playoff game.
It was Nick Saban. Alabama. The freaking Rose Bowl.
Jim Harbaugh had already cleared a number of hurdles during his time in Ann Arbor. He ended a long losing streak to Ohio State with back-to-back blowouts (and then a third-straight win for good measure). He barreled through the 18-year Big Ten title drought with three conference championships in a row.
Michigan is 35-1 in its last three regular seasons and 39-3 overall since the start of 2021. By all accounts, this is one of the most dominant runs in the history of the sport.
But if the Wolverines had lost on Monday, this entire era would have been remembered for “well, they couldn’t win in the playoff,” or “they dominated a weak Big Ten,” or “they didn’t belong among the elite programs in the sport.”
With this win, Michigan wiped those narratives from existence. (If you listen closely, you can actually hear millions of disappointed people deleting condescending tweets.)
It doesn’t get any better than beating the sport’s most dominant dynasty at the most iconic venue in the country. No, this isn’t one of Saban’s best Alabama teams. But it’s still a team that, the last time we saw it, handed the defending back-to-back national champs their first loss since December 2021.
Alabama is the current standard in college football. Since 2008, the Crimson Tide has not once failed to reach double digit wins. It has won six national championships, nine playoff games, and finished in the top five 12 times (and never worse than 10th).
That’s why, despite the “No. 1″ next to Michigan’s logo, most of the world expected Alabama to do what it always does Monday in Pasadena: win.
But this Michigan team is different. It didn’t even play well in two of three phases, but still found a way to knock off the vaunted Crimson Tide.
J.J. McCarthy nearly threw an interception on the first snap of the game. Michigan muffed two punts, botched an extra point, missed a field goal, and went 2-11 on third down. This was not the type of overpowering performance we’ve become accustomed to seeing out of the Wolverines.
But unlike last season, when a slew of similar self-inflicted errors doomed Michigan against TCU, this team was up to the task against a much stronger opponent. Michigan out-gained Alabama by 63 yards, sacked Jalen Milroe six times, and committed just two penalties.
And just when it looked like the Wolverines were dead in the water, they answered the bell over and over again.
The Braiden McGregor sack to force a late field goal. The Blake Corum catch on fourth down. The leaping grab by Roman Wilson. The shoestring tackle from Rod Moore to stop Milroe from tying the game in overtime.
And finally, that last push from the defensive line to topple Milroe short of the goal line.
Michigan needed play after play after play to come back and win that game, and it made every single one of them. As the Maize and Blue confetti rained down on the Granddaddy of them All, you could feel the seismic shift in perception of the Michigan football program.
Monday night wasn’t just a playoff game, or a Rose Bowl, or an overtime classic against mighty Alabama. This win validated everything Harbaugh and the Wolverines have built over three seasons. It wasn’t because of sign stealing or non-conference scheduling or a weak Big Ten.
Michigan is for real, and it’s heading to the first national championship game in program history. It doesn’t get much better than that.
