Bang, bang. Donovan Edwards put up two 40 yard touchdowns on Michigan's first two drives, and they were more or less the same thing: duo that sucks in Washington defenders followed by Edwards being insanely explosive. Number one:

There was an undercurrent of sardonic amusement amongst the twitterati after this one because it felt like Edwards missed the hole and only got to it by luck after making a mistake, but this is only a touchdown because Edwards initially presses the A gap. That action sucks in three different defenders and when Edwards changes direction, it's over. This is all I want from Donovan Edwards: change direction. If he does that he wins because no one is as explosive as he is.

Number two is all of the gaps (all of the gaps):

That's two TEs, a bonus OL, and Cornelius Johnson. If Zak Zinter was healthy I guarantee you Cornelius Johnson would not be on the field.

Washington does not know what the hell to do with this. They've clearly prepped for the Big Big Boys; all 11 defenders are within six yards of the LOS. But they do not see this and scout team only gets you so far. Edwards again presses a gap he is not going in. The LB level bites on the initial action, and when Edwards cuts back there's nothing but daylight.

There's a fair chance that Edwards scores even if the backside linebacker doesn't fling himself into the line, because that is a truck lane.

These two runs combine with the Penn State explosive to indicate a path forward for Edwards at Michigan if he does decide to return. Yeah, run at a friendly butt. Then do something else. Touchdown. Hooray.

[After THE JUMP: more stuff]

The other explosive. Corum's 59-yarder was another duo, and this one actually went to the run strength. The key guy was Trente Jones, who got a devastating chip and then climbed to a linebacker:

RT #53

Hell of a thing to bring in that guy after your All-American goes down and have little to no dropoff overall.

McCarthy does McCarthy things. JJ McCarthy existed in the background, with just 18 attempts. 10 were complete, including this dime to Wilson to set up the second TD:

He suffered a number of PBUs that weren't because of he accuracy of the ball and a flat drop from Cornelius Johnson; he was his usual self when Michigan's ground game was in pave mode.

Obligatory mention that I would have really liked to see what happens when McCarthy is added to the ground game against this defense. Alex Orji had a first-half arc read keeper; that was the only QB run until McCarthy's crucial scramble late in the third quarter. This was immediately followed by another arc keeper for a first down.

I'm just sayin'. Kalel Mullings didn't get a whole lot of at-bats in this game but he did add this one to his "gonna be a monster in 2024" reel:

He just about runs through three tacklers there after setting up his blocks to shoot through the LOS.

[Fuller]

I have a complaint! After the big Corum run Michigan ran it twice to get it to third and four. Pretty much the entire world expected another run; Michigan ran a straight dropback with Cornelius Johnson in the Roman Wilson role where he runs speed motion and then runs an out. Jabbar Muhammad dominated the route and got a PBU. I was on board with a run, and then another run.

Another complaint. Michigan had a third and eight on the plus 44; they ran the ball for five yards. They then lined up to punt on fourth and three from the plus 39, which would have been the most bogglingly bad fourth down decision since the 1990s. Michigan did call timeout and go for it, failing on another quick out that got PBUed. That timeout turned out to be very relevant when Cornelius Johnson could not get out of bounds as Michigan attempted a one-minute drill at the end of the half. Michigan had to spike the ball afterwards. Instead of second and three with 29 seconds left on the plus 49, Michigan had third and three with 16 seconds.

DEFENSE

[Fuller]

The matchup. Will Johnson did not come in for a good PFF grade in this game because he made a couple mistakes when targeted, picking up two penalties. This is an instance where what happens when Johnson actually gets targeted feels less important than what happens when he isn't. Odunze got open deep on a couple of busts in the secondary; he did not get a single contested catch opportunity. This is a guy who was 21/27 entering this game. Johnson dissuaded Penix from attempting He's Down There Somewhere plays, and his value is not encompassed by the PFF score.

God bless Michael Penix. I did not utter this in the lead-up to the game, but a thought I had once the matchup was set was "at least we're playing Michael Penix's Washington team." If we win, I mean, we get to weep at each other. If we lose… worse. Not good. But Mike Penix winning a national title with Washington is also great. Like 0.01% as great as Michigan winning it, but thoroughyl tolerable.

Also God bless Michael Penix not having the Texas game again. Penix looked like Trevor Siemian last week. This week he was decidedly mortal. A lot of that had to do with Michigan's pressure and coverages. In the aftermath there are legions of "but this guy was open" takes. And yeah, there were open guys. We had the same takes after the OSU and Alabama games. (Iowa not so much.) At some point even the guys who are flogging the idea that Michigan's defense isn't good, but lucky, might take a breath. It's not a coincidence that three of the country's most efficient passing offenses went in a hole and died against Minter's D. The whole point of Michigan's disguised coverages is to get QBs looking at the wrong thing, and then read three is Mason Graham.

[Barron]

A man arrives. Quite a time for Keon Sabb to have a coming-out party. Sabb started the game with a missed tackle on third and five near midfield that gave Washington a first down, leading to some muttering from me about why he was out there. He was also in the area on a successful Odunze screen on the first drive, though on review I don't think that was a bad play from him. At the time I was extremely nervous and confirmation bias made me upset about Sabb being out there again.

Afterwards he was superlative. Sabb was in good coverage on Odunze on the third and goal that terminated that drive, possibly contributing to Penix's throw being high and wide because the window Sabb provided was so small. He had two PBUs, one of them on Odunze. That one didn't make the highlight video but the other did:

Add him to the list of true sophomores who will give next year's team a foundation.

 

[Fuller]

A man departs. Mike Sainristil looked mortal on a couple of plays as Michigan played an elite passing offense, and also:

On WTKA this week, Sam recounted a conversation he had with Steve Clinkscale before 2022. Clinkscale was asserting that Michigan would not have a dropoff at nickel after losing Dax Hill to the first round of the NFL draft, and Sam was incredulous. It turned out he was 100% correct.

In actual coverage, yeah the interception was a bit of a gift but the reason Penix was chucking it on fourth and thirteen is Sainristil's perfect coverage on third down:

Can't do it better than that.

[Barron]

A man is large. Michigan's DL dominated this matchup but only had one sack to show for it. Fortunately, that sack was emblematic. Kenneth Grant, lol:

That guy is a three star true sophomore DT. The other true sophomore DT came in for more recruiting hype but not enough. Mason Graham was the guy who forced the Penix floater that Johnson intercepted. I listed Graham with the rest of the DL in the awards section but gave some thought to making him the solo #2. Of all the Michigan rushers he was the most consistent.

[Barron]

How I'll remember Kris Jenkins. Jenkins just did not stay blocked. You could not seal him. If you had leverage on him, he just climbed over it and got to the ball. The best example in this game was the stuff that led to a fourth and goal near the end of the first half:

Just would not stay blocked.

The TD at the end of the half. That was max pro from Washington on the three with just three guys in the route. Colson ended up on a green dog blitz when he saw the back stay in; I'm not sure that was right because Sainristil was clearly in outside leverage against the slot, and it's extremely rare you'd play outside leverage in man to man in the redzone; you're giving up the easier throw if the guy does break in. Like, there is no way Sainristil expects that he's in pure man on this guy:

That's likely academic since Will Johnson got hit with a holding call and Washington was going to have first and goal from the one even if Michigan got a stop. It was reminiscent of the early Emeka Egbuka touchdown in the 2022 Game: Sainristil in outside leverage against the slot in the redzone, expecting help and not getting it.

You can't delay the delay-ers. Washington got Michigan in the first half on a TE delay to Westover, but when they went back to it on a crucial third and eight after Michigan went up 20-10, Minter had the perfect call:

Penix almost has no choice there because Barrett is screaming in unblocked, but one wonders why he's not saying "screw it, Odunze's down there somewhere" on this play, or several others.

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Malort of punts. To recycle a joke from the podcast: Washington's punter was Punt Malort. It's horrible but it gets you there. Jack McCallister cannot punt at all, at all, at all; also he averaged 48 yards a kick with zero return yards. All of these punts were short, un-returnable shanks that rolled a million yards after hitting the ground.

In the second half Michigan attempted to adapt by putting both Morgan and Thaw out there at the same time. On the first of these return opportunities, several folks on the Michigan sideline freaked out and exhorted Morgan to get to the sideline before the snap. He ran off the field, but was still on it on the snap. Thaw couldn't return a rare deep punt from Malort and the Washington fans at the stadium were incensed that there was no flag… but Michigan was just running player 11 off the field. On the second attempt both returners stayed out and Thaw was able to field a Malort punt for the first time, setting Michigan up in decent position.

I am very upset at the cosmic balance here. Tommy Doman had a major bounce-back game after Alabama, averaging 47 yards a kick with no return yards. He did it by booming majestic moon balls. McCallister coughed out punts like an asthmatic chihuahua and got the same results. Won't anyone think of the aesthetics?

Doink. I choose to believe that James Turner doinked an extra point off the goalposts because he wanted to make a point in the national championship game: it is way more fun when a doink is worth a point in addition to anything else that happens.

Eh? Semaj Morgan brought out the first two kickoffs he faced and Michigan started on about the 15 on both. Neither kickoff made it to the endzone; they both landed at about the one. There's been a blame-Morgan vibe in the aftermath, but he's coached to let them go if they're over his head and bring them back if they're not. Michigan's blocking got bowled over on both to the point where Morgan didn't have an opportunity to do anything interesting.

Honestly at this point I wouldn't bother practicing kickoffs, let alone returning them. They've changed the equation to the point where it's not worth the time.

MISCELLANEOUS

[Barron]

The one bit of stupid I'll allow. Okay, you can have a giant pylon mascot lurking ominously in the background.

German Green gets the drink. You cannot get Jim Harbaugh with the ice bath:

How they did it: scouting. There's been a lot of talk in the aftermath of the national title game about how Michigan is an outlier because of starz. They don't recruit like Alabama and Georgia and OSU so they don't have as much talent and wow they really overcame that.

They did not. The recruiting services just screwed up. What does a five star do in college? Well, take Will Johnson or JJ McCarthy. They tool around for half of their freshman year before emerging into a starter/contributor and then blow up in year two. PFF grades for second-year DTs with at least 100 snaps:

Walter Nolen was the #2 overall recruit in this class

This is even more of a blowout when you consider that most of the guys on this list with relatively limited snaps are limited for a reason other than "we have Kris Jenkins, Cam Goode, and Rayshaun Benny."  Michigan recruited two five-star DTs in that class. If they reranked today is Mason Graham is at worst the #3 overall recruit from that class. Only Travis Hunter and Luther Burden are anywhere near him.

They also recruited a five-star TE (Colston Loveland). In the class before I'd argue that Rod Moore was also a five-star airball from the recruiting sites; our man started as a true freshman against OSU and was not a problem and then had two incredible PBUs as a true sophomore the year after. Ditto Blake Corum, who was so obviously a dude that he chased actual five-star Zach Charbonnet to UCLA. The scouting is real.

BTW: one dollar to Washington. Jayvon Parker was the #65 player in Michigan that year. Parker still has a ways to go but dude was in Kent State territory to the sites.

Offseason attrition ho. Michigan got a reprieve since they were, you know, winning the national title. Now the portalings/draft departures will begin in earnest. CJ Stokes had already announce his intention to transfer; he's going to join up with Biff Poggi at Charlotte. A bunch of guys announced they'd be at the Senior Bowl but most were either out of eligibility (LaDarius Henderson, Mike Barrett, Mike Sainristil) or guys with only a COVID year left who were always earmarked for the draft, especially after business finished (Roman Wilson, Trevor Keegan). News that shifts our projected roster for next year:

• TE AJ Barner is on the Senior Bowl list. Barner could have taken a fifth year, and I had hopes he would since his receiving stats (22 for 249) aren't out of this world and may have obscured his excellence as a blocker for NFL types. Barner can still withdraw from the game if he doesn't like the feedback he's hearing but that's not a likely outcome. To some extent TE at Michigan is a plug and play situation but Barner's the best blocking TE we've charted and his absence will be felt.
• DE Braiden McGregor is also on the Senior Bowl list. Like Barner he could have taken a fifth year and could, hypothetically, withdraw. If Josiah Stewart comes back Michigan should have lethal 1-2 punch at DE between him and Derrick Moore, but it's unclear who #3 is (TJ Guy?), let alone #4.
• WR Darrius Clemons hit the portal. This one hurts since Michigan is losing Wilson and Cornelius Johnson with no clear replacements on the outside aside from Tyler Morris.
• CB Amorion Walker also hit the portal. Another disappointing entry. Even if it wasn't going to work out at corner, he could have moved back to WR, where Michigan is now exceedingly thin.
• LB Junior Colson entered the draft. Widely expected.

A glance towards next year. More appropriate for down the road, but briefly.

OFFENSE:

QB: Plz JJ, otherwise ???
RB: Mullings, Hall, Cabana
WR: Morris, Morgan, ???
TE: Loveland, Bredeson
OL: Hinton/El-Hadi/Crippen/Priebe/Jones

I got blocked by one of the OSU paysite guys who was moaning about Michigan's unprecedented "44 seniors" (a third of them walkons, a third of them with remaining eligibility) because I said he'd be mad when Michigan's 2025 OL went 6/4/4/5/6 in terms of years on campus. If JJ comes back there's really only one question: WR. I believe in Mullings, I think we've seen enough from 4/5 OL to believe they'll be good, and even WR has a couple of guys who look like keepers.

If JJ does not come back, your guess is as good as mine.

DEFENSE:

DE: Moore, Stewart
DT: Graham, Grant, Benny
LB: Hausmann, Barham, Rolder
CB: Johnson, ???
S: Paige, Sabb, Johnson

After Sabb's outstanding performance against Washington this looks like a replay of 2023, minus two things: depth and linebackers who can really move in space. Colson and Barrett were pretty close to hybrids and the new generation seems more definitively linebacker-y. CB2 is probably fine since all the guys competing to pass Josh Wallace now look like guys who got beat out by a damn good player.

HERE

Best and Worst:

I was a high school junior when Michigan last won a national title, living in Metro Detroit and preparing to take the ACT and considering maybe applying to Michigan for college.  For those who are quick at math or who've seen me try to deploy hip-kids slang on the blog over the years, that means I'm in my early 40s, that wonderful age range where people most commonly assume you're either a really tired 30-year-old or a spry 50-year-old.  It's the age where I look at the Stella Artois in my fridge and Bulleit Bourbon in my liquor cabinet and then wind up drinking 2 cans of lemon seltzer and peeing like a race horse every 15 minutes in the 2nd half because I know I've got to get up and take the kids to school before work.

Regardless, it's the age where you start realizing you may not see everything you expected to see in your life in the future, or at least not at the frequency you assumed at a younger age.  In 1997 I thought it was awesome UM won a title but I sort of expected it to keep going.  College football was different back, captured no better than a final top-10 featuring UCLA, Nebraska, UNC, and Washington State.  But Michigan seemed poise to keep this level of championship competition going forward, with top-end recruiting and coaching to go along with all of their natural and historical advantages.

But as we all know, that didn't really occur.

The Summit:

"The Year"

I remember the dark times.

My career as a student on campus in Ann Arbor began in Fall of 2008, Rich Rodriguez's first season. I graduated in Spring 2011, just as Brady Hoke arrived. As bookends go those are arguably the worst years in the football program's history. I left with degree in hand months before Michigan would complete an 11-win season that included a victory over Ohio State for the first time since 2003 and a win in the Sugar Bowl. What are the chances?

A mere two years before I came, Michigan students had been used to seeing winning seasons, Big Ten championships, Rose Bowls. Yeah, there was Jim Tressel who'd thrown a wrench into things, but for the most part Michigan played meaningful football that its fans and the rest of the world cared about.

If you had been a student on campus for any stretch of four years before 2008 you had probably at some point seen a fairly high degree of Michigan success, and you could have non-delusional hope that the Wolverines were at least potentially capable of putting together a special season like 1997, in any given year.

Pax Michigan and The End Of History:

Who’s got it better than us?

For a long time, that was a sarcastic joke. For a long time, many, many others had it better. For many years, “those who stayed” were, in fact, not champions.

I have vague, fuzzy, blurred memories from my formative years of Tim Biakabutuka running for 313 yards. Of Shawn Springs slipping on the Ohio Stadium turf as Tai Streets ran for a touchdown. I remember Charles Woodson’s punt return. I remember his interception in the Rose Bowl endzone. I remember sitting with my father as a boy, watching Michigan win the national championship. Beating Ohio State and winning championships. Events that seemed normal as a child became fleeting and scarce as an adult.

In the 26 years that have passed since that moment of glory in the fading Southern California sun in college football’s most hallowed cathedral on New Year’s Day 1998, many things changed. The fortunes of our beloved football program went in a largely negative direction. The warmth of a father basking in a championship with his young son faded, withered by the strains of life and the frailties of humanity, always susceptible to darkness. We are never more than five minutes away from a ruined day, should we indulge the darker recesses of our minds and our souls.

On candidate Sherrone and the importance of soap opera in CFB:

Sherrone isn't part of the Kelly-Meyer coaching tree. He isn't even part of the Harbaugh tree. Sherrone cut his teeth under big smelly stinkers like Steve Kragthorpe and John Bonamego. This is Sherrone's career arc:

2009–2011 Louisville (GA)
2012–2013 Louisville (TE)
2014–2016 Central Michigan (TE)
2017 Central Michigan (AHC/TE/RC)
2018–2020 Michigan (TE)
2021–2022 Michigan (co-OC/OL)
2023–present Michigan (OC/OL)
2023 Michigan (acting HC)

There is no objective case to be made that Sherrone was born on third base.

Forget the 15-year resume, just look at three weeks in November. Sherrone learned on an airplane in the middle of the sky that he was going to be the acting HC in a top-3 hostile road environment for a Big Noon showdown in a top-10 matchup that Michigan *had to win* lest the whole program be *invalidated*.

The next week, he hit the road again, with his star QB injured, to play what turned out to be a top-25ish B1G team.

Echoes Will Remain:

There are so many moments. Three years of them.

One may enjoy the action and the plot of a good epic, but what truly keeps us coming back for more is the characters. They are not merely actors moving along the plot, but friends to whom we grow attached, whose fates we care about more deeply than even the universe they fight to save.

And there are so many. They will live forever in our minds, legends of the program. Hutchinson. Ojabo. Turner. Mazi. Dax. Steuber. Oluwatimi. Hayes. Haskins. Bell. Schoonmaker.

And: Graham. Grant. Colson. Barrett. Moore. Paige. Johnson. Moore. Zinter. Keegan. Loveland. Johnson. Wilson. Edwards. McCarthy. Corum.

An enjoyable epic will give each hero, great and small, moments of triumph and glory. And so they have: Keon Sabb closing and tackling a Bama receiver at the line on the key defensive drive. Jaden McBurrows de-cleating an Ohio State receiver. AJ Barner with huge blocks and vital turns as a receiver. Tyler Morris tight-roping down the sideline, outracing the Crimson Tide secondary.

A Game for the Generations:

On a visit home to Chicago, on New Years Day 2016, we watched Michigan quietly trounce Florida 41-7 together. He took a nap on the couch during halftime that lasted into a healthy chunk of the third quarter. To be fair the game wasn’t exactly a nailbiter.

He passed away suddenly and peacefully 12 days later, at age 91. This set me up for a challenging year. My second child arrived that June, and we had many unexpected life changes coming. But Michigan came through for me. After nine seasons in the wilderness, Harbaugh had restored much of what had been lacking. In a grief-filled, exhausting time, Michigan football had given me something to pull me forward.

War Dad content:

Hail! To the Victors Valiant

This diary will not be about the Siege of Ceuta, other than a mere mention. Just like the story of Michigan’s perfect season will not be about hamburgers or signs, or whatever they come up with, other than a wisp of a memory that in future years you can’t quite put your finger on what exactly it was. This diary, like Michigan’s season, will be about The Victors. This diary will be about the soul of Michigan, and how it it binds all of our souls together like a tapestry that stretches across the world, space, into the echoes of the past and into the promise of the future. This diary will be about the keystone of the Michigan arch that for almost a century and a half, for almost all 1004 wins, has been the hymn that connects generations, inspires hope, pride and fear. It will be about The Victors.

Since the day Sargon formed his Akkadian infantry into the first organized formation to step onto the battlefield, music has played a dual role in the fabric of martial society. Originally a method of controlling the chaos of battle, the sounds of drums, bugles, and an assortment of other instruments have rung out across all the battlefields of humanity. They have issued orders, saved lives, and changed the course of history. These orders have become interwoven in our society as a whole, from “Charge” to “Taps”. They were simple tunes. The chaos and sounds of battle necessitated it. “You don’t see a battle” a Major in the British Army’s 95th Rifles once say “you hear it”. Those simple beats, easy to remember, easy to follow, and easy to duplicate across battlefields that stretched either a few acres or a few miles moved armies great and small. You can barely hear in a battle, your basest instincts are triggered and your lizard brain claims you. You can not expect a farmer from Franconia to remember the difference between Mozart and Bach as he faces an Ottoman cavalry charge, but he can count drum beats, or remember a 6 note bugle call.

I Want To Live This Way Forever:

Victory is sweet; hard-earned victory is even sweeter.

I’ve got a fever these days

Revved up like a riot at the end of the game

Come on and open the gates

I’m hanging on to this feeling ‘til they drag me away

Often the adversity we face along the path to victory is self-inflicted. Sometimes our greatest enemy – the only thing standing between us and our goals – is ourselves. Sometimes we can’t get out of our own way in a manner that dooms us to failure, a fate infinitely more agonizing than defeat at the hand of a superior opponent. Mistakes add up, errors compound, and we can do nothing but watch as the certainties of our grasp slip away to “what-ifs” and “could-have-beens.” Occasionally, however, we are able to overcome our failures, and the story told therein ends on a far sweeter note than any victory that comes with ease.

A review of season preview predictions. Also do I look stupid? NIL strategy was good. What now? Michigan's best resume ever? Turning points.

ELSEWHERE

Sure, this guy:

Film session w/ Coach 30 - #WashingtonHuskies vs. #MichiganWolverines #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/gzRmWEoqKH

— Brenden Clinton (@MrGo30) January 10, 2024

Fine, okay, let's get all the I'm Wearing A Different Shirt Now comedy in:

Rich Eisen:

It’s great to be a National Champion Wolverine.

Please share this with the @UMichFootball fan in your life.
pic.twitter.com/FqT4ZsxFT7

— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) January 10, 2024

I do not know why this is set to YMCA but ok: