On Sunday, the No. 2 Michigan football 

team learned its postseason fate: A trip to 
Miami to face No. 3 Georgia in the Orange 
Bowl. While the Bulldogs’ recent loss to 
Alabama toppled them from their long-held 
No. 1 spot, it’s hard to picture a National 
Championship game without them in it. 

But, as the Wolverines have said all 

season, they aren’t flinching. 

“We’re gonna be looking forward to it,” 

junior quarterback Cade McNamara said 
Sunday. “We know that it’ll be a challenge for 
us, and they have a good defense, but I think 
we’ve got a solid team ourselves. So I know 
that we’ll be confident, and I know we’re 
gonna be looking forward to it.”

While the team will take a short break 

to regroup before resuming practice, 
McNamara — known for his meticulous 
preparation — said he would start watching 
tapes later that afternoon. 

For much of the season, it looked like 

Georgia was in a league of its own. 

The Bulldogs have averaged close to 

200 yards on the ground and 250 yards 
through the air en route to a 12-1 record. 
They have a defense that’s held four teams 
to a touchdown or less and three more 
absolutely scoreless, giving up an average 
of 9.53 points per game. They opened the 
season by holding then-No. 3 Clemson to 
just a field goal and followed it up just under 
a month later with a 37-0 thrashing of then 
No. 8 Arkansas, performances that were 
good enough to snatch the No. 1 spot early 
in the season and hold it tight up until the 

conference championship week. 

But after Georgia’s blowout loss on 

Saturday, many in the Wolverines’ camp 
were hoping the dominant win against Iowa 
would be enough to propel Michigan to the 
top. 

“I thought we should have been No. 1,” 

senior edge Aidan Hutchinson said. “I mean, 
we just beat the number two team in the 
country and the number 13, but it is what it is. 
I mean, we’re in it. And we’re all so excited to 
play in Miami.”

While the seeming nonchalance could be 

hiding a greater sense of disappointment, it 
might just be genuine gratitude for how far 
the Wolverines have come. They started the 
season with mediocre expectations, many 
outside the facility anticipating a 7-5 ceiling 
for their season. Now, they’re the only team 
in history to make the College Football 

Playoff after starting the season unranked. 

Still, when asked whether there was any 

point in the season where they realized a 
Playoff berth could really be in their future, 
each player gave a similar response: 

“I never actually gave up on this team,” 

sophomore receiver Roman Wilson said. “I 
thought we could be one of the best teams 
in the nation. Even when I committed here, 
I still believed that. And I want to say I’m not 
surprised but really happy with what this 
team has done.”

Added graduate defensive back Brad 

Hawkins: “After the Michigan State loss, 
we all had a player-led meeting. We didn’t 
let that game define us. We continued to 
push. We continued to move on as a unit. 
The leadership in this building is amazing. 
We just kept hammering at it, kept grinding 
at it. We didn’t get satisfied. We continue to 

just grind it out. We knew that to come to this 
point we’d have to win out and we did that. 
We just continued to believe in each other, 
we stayed together. 

“And we got it done.”
Now, the Wolverines have a national 

semi-final clash with Georgia to show for it.

INDIANAPOLIS 
— 
A 
Big 

Ten Championship, a 17-year title 
drought and a chance at the College 
Football Playoff lay on the line 
Saturday. There was absolutely no 
need for extra motivation.

And yet, the shoulder of every 

Michigan football player, coach and 
staff member bore a patch: a block 
‘O,’ with the initials ‘TM’ and the 
number 42. It was to honor Tate 
Myre, a 16 year old high school 
student who played football and 
wrestled. A student that passed 
away in the shooting in his high 
school on Tuesday in Oxford, Mich.

After the tragedy, this game 

found far more meaning than 
championship hopes. It was about 
being there for a family in its time of 
need, and this team — like it has on 
the football field nearly every time 
this season — rose to the occasion 
during its title-clinching victory 
over No. 13 Iowa. 

“You know, it’s a community 

that needs all of our prayers, every 
one of them,” Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh said. “And we just, we 
wanted to offer that up. We wanted 
to offer our prayers. They’re a 
community that desperately needs 
it and offer them up to the one who 
conquered death and also honor 
Tate Myre and his bravery, his 
courage.”

Besides just wearing the patch, 

the Myre family was also in 
Indianapolis and joined the team for 
the coin toss. 

So, with the biggest game of its 

season coming up, Michigan had 
its eyes focused on something else: 
the Myre family. And, as always, 
the Wolverines’ leader stepped into 
the foreground. Senior edge rusher 
Aidan Hutchinson, less than a week 
after making a Heisman Trophy 
statement game, thought the team 

needed to honor Tate. 

So he went to Harbaugh.
“And so, you know, when the 

players — when Aidan came to me — 
and wanted to dedicate this game to 
Tate Myre, (I said), ‘You know, yes, 
let’s do that,’ ” Harbaugh said. “Let’s 
do that. That was, that was huge.”

These Wolverines have never 

needed anyone to motivate them 
externally, but, as their repeated 
exclamations of ‘2%’ and ‘6-6’ came 

bursting out of the locker room 
on Saturday night showed, a little 
outside motivation couldn’t hurt. To 
play for a community in Michigan, 
in a team made up of leaders from 
Michigan, that dedication pushed 
the Wolverines to play as best they 
could. 

“We talked about it last night,” 

Harbaugh said. “What more, 
how much more can we pile into 
one game, the importance of one 
game.”

Graduate student center Andrew 

Vastardis added: “And on top of it, 
we wanted to play for 42, all those 
that tragically lost their lives in that 
community and everything.”

After 
beating 
Ohio 
State, 

Saturday’s game became about 
tempering 
emotions: 
Following 

such a high where Michigan finally 
threw the monster off its back, how 
would they respond and focus on 
the next game? Then, the tragedy 
in Oxford added even more to that 
emotional turbulence.

So, when Donovan Edwards 

dove over the top of a pile to score 
the Wolverines’ sixth touchdown 
of the game and Jake Moody hit his 
sixth extra-point down the middle 
of the uprights to make the score a 
42-3 statement, it meant more. 

“Goosebumps,” Hutchinson said.
“Chills,” Vastardis said. 
Now, instead of 42 just on the 

shoulders of Michigan to honor Tate 
Myre and Oxford, that number will 
be written into the history books.

KENT SCHWARTZ
Managing Sports Editor

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 
Sports
 Wednesday, December 8, 2021 — 11

In Saturday’s championship game, 
Tate Myre became a part of history

LANE KIZZIAH

Managing Sports Editor

Michigan looks forward to Georgia despite not receiving No. 1 ranking

SportsMonday: Don’t doubt Michigan anymore

On Dec. 31st, Michigan will play for 

everything. In a season that began full 
of doubt and low expectations, it beat 
Ohio State. It beat Wisconsin and Iowa. 
It’s 
overcome 

every obstacle and 
trial sent its way 
so far, including 
rebounding after 
its 
late 
game 

collapse 
against 

Michigan State.

On New Year’s 

Eve, in the College 
Football 
Playoff, 

the Wolverines will play Georgia. 
Alabama or Cincinnati await, should 
they win. 

And, after the past two weeks, 

Michigan could very well be the best 
team in the country. 

It’s certainly shown its weaknesses: 

Cade McNamara won’t blow your 
socks off, and its defense lets up yards to 
talented offenses. But the rest of those 
teams have weaknesses, too.

In its biggest test of the year, Georgia 

allowed 536 yards of offense, with 
421 through the air. Its previously 
unflappable defense showed glaring 
holes. Stetson Bennett IV can manage 
and lead the team to victory, but he 
struggled coming from behind. 

“General impressions are rugged,” 

Jim Harbaugh said of Georgia on 
Sunday. “It’s a rugged, tough, tough 
squad that plays extremely well on 
all sides of the ball and special teams. 
Gonna be really excited to dig into it and 
study them. But yeah, that’s the word 
that came to my mind.”

Alabama struggled against Auburn 

and at Texas A&M with a young Bryce 

Young looking overwhelmed and the 
offense looking stagnant. Perhaps after 
walloping Georgia, the Crimson Tide 
has found itself. Perhaps not.

Then there’s Cincinnati, which 

possesses the nation’s longest unbeaten 
streak. They’ve squashed nearly every 
team they’ve faced this season, including 
No. 5 Notre Dame, but the same 
questions have persisted throughout 
their season: What happens when they 
play an opponent like Alabama that’s 
incredibly talented?

Through 
the 
last 
14 
weeks, 

Michigan has established itself as 
the No. 2 team in the country, and 
there are few who would argue it. 
It’s outperformed every expectation 
that those outside the program have 
had for it, and on New Year’s Eve, the 
expectation is a loss. Georgia opened 
as a one-touchdown favorite, and very 
few outside the program would expect 
the Wolverines to win. 

But Michigan knows how good of a 

team it is.

“I think when we beat (Ohio State), 

we knew we can — we’re a really good 
football team — and we got a really 
good chance to win (the semifinal), 
because Ohio State was a really talented 
team,” senior defensive lineman Aidan 
Hutchinson said.

Michigan has the best rushing game 

of the remaining four teams, gaining 30 
more yards on the ground than the next 
best team in the playoff — the Bulldogs. 
It has the second-best 3rd-down 
conversion percentage, with 45.1%, and 
the second-best 3rd-down defense, with 
32.3%, both behind the Crimson Tide.

This year, where talent and coaching 

are even, it seems that what matters 

most is an identity and dedication. The 
Wolverines have mastered both over 
the course of the season. 

“Toughness is something that we 

take to heart and that we have made our 
identity,” Michigan quarterback Cade 
McNamara said. “And I really — I just 
love the identity that we’ve created, no 
matter what the style of football is at this 
day and age.”

The last two games, in its toughest 

stretch of the season, that identity 
has worn down opponents and led to 
second-half explosions. McNamara 
has been clinical, hitting his targets and 
making the plays he needs to. But above 
that, there’s the element that is perhaps 
most surprising: Michigan’s big plays.

Saturday’s double pass for 75 yards 

and Blake Corum’s run for 67 yards, 
are just the beginning of an offense 
that repeatedly gains large chunks of 
yards. The Wolverines totaled eight 
plays of 15-plus yards in the Big Ten 
Championship Game, breaking open 
a defense that is one of the best in the 
country. 

Michigan has been doubted week 

after week, including by me, but with 
just two weeks left, no one should doubt 
the Wolverines.

Because they may just win the 

National Championship.

MILES MACKLIN/Daily 

 Sophomore running back Blake Corum rushed for a 67 
yard touchdown in the Big Ten Championship Game.

BECCA MAHON/Daily 

The Michigan football team scored 42 
points on Saturday, the jersey number 
Oxford student Tate Myre wore. 

BECCA MAHON/Daily 

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh won his first Big 

Ten Championship a year after going 2-4.

Josh Gattis made a mad dash for the 

elevator. 

For the second straight week, the Michigan 

football team had done 
something that, a few 
months prior, seemed 
unthinkable. Even before 
the confetti fell from 
the 
rafters 
following 

the 
Wolverines’ 
42-3 

throttling of Iowa, Gattis 
and his analysts had 
begun 
their 
descent, 

anxious 
to 
join 
the 

celebration of the program’s first Big Ten 
Championship since 2004.

For Gattis individually, though, the win 

meant even more. His offense’s performance 
— a complete, 42-point dismantling of one 
of the nation’s top defenses statistically — 
represented the full realization of a vision that, 
in prior years, had failed to materialize.

It was abundantly clear: The efforts of 

Gattis, Jim Harbaugh and the entire offense 
had fully borne fruit.

“I think (it’s) just the commitment from 

both sources — coach Gattis and then us 
believing in him,” sophomore running back 
Blake Corum said.

That commitment has taken time. The 

program Gattis joined in 2019 — one that was 
entering its fifth season with Jim Harbaugh 
at the helm — ran an archaic, uninspiring 
offense that had visibly reached its ceiling. 
Gattis had the potential to fix that; he brought 
promises of modern schemes and a catchy 
“speed in space” slogan, a refreshing message 
for an offense that, up to that point, looked 
anything but modern.

In Gattis’ first two years, though, the 

offense lacked an identity. At times, it 
made little sense, featuring gimmicky two-
quarterback systems and wildcat packages 
that only helped it get in its own way. Soon, it 
became a question whether the same fate that 
doomed promising Michigan offenses of old 
— the “innovations” of Rich Rodriguez, of Pep 
Hamilton, of offensive coordinators dating 
back to the Wolverines’ last conference title — 
would come to meet Josh Gattis.

It didn’t. Where other coaches in 

Michigan’s past had doubled down on their 
failures, Gattis adapted. Instead of forcing 
his offense into a pass-first system with 
personnel not suited to it, he looked at the 
talent in his running backs room and on his 

offensive line and worked with Harbaugh to 
accentuate it.

“He committed to the run game early,” 

Corum said. “In the interview (prior to the 
season), he said last year he didn’t really focus 
on the run game. He’s been a tremendous play 
caller.”

Harbaugh, too, learned from Gattis. The 

head coach’s fingerprints are all over the 
Wolverines’ offense — they’re most visible 
in the old-fashioned power runs that have 
opened up space for the backs all season. 
But he’s also allowed Gattis’ own creativity 
to flourish. On Saturday, that was evident in 
Michigan’s multiple big plays, in the double 
pass for a touchdown from freshman running 
back Donovan Edwards, in the flea flicker 
that’s called basically every week and in the 
endless jet sweeps and end arounds that — yes 
— put speed in space.

The results are easy to see. The Wolverines 

have gone from tallying 381.3 yards per game 
last year to 451.9 this year. In both of their 
biggest two games of the season — against 
Ohio State last week and the Hawkeyes on 
Saturday — they’ve put up 42 points and over 
450 yards. From the eye-test standpoint, the 
offense is playing with as much confidence as 
any team in the country and having fun while 
doing it.

“Toughness is something that we take to 

heart and that we have made our identity,” 
junior quarterback Cade McNamara said. “I 
just love the identity that we’ve created, no 
matter what the style of football is at this day 
and age.”

Truthfully, the offense that Gattis and 

Harbaugh have crafted together has been a 
long time coming. When Gattis first arrived 
on campus, he struggled to live up to the 
expectations placed upon him to shape a 
championship-caliber system.

Now, with a Big Ten Championship under 

his belt and as a finalist for the Broyles Award 
— given to the nation’s top assistant coach 
every year — Gattis has proven that he belongs 
at Michigan. Through the speed bumps the 
program has hit along the way, both he and 
Harbaugh have managed to adapt and help 
build a true contender.

“We’ve really had the mentality of 

‘Michigan versus everybody,’ ” McNamara 
said. “I just don’t know much to say other than 
I love these dudes. Like, really.”

That mentality has lifted the Wolverines to 

new heights. Soon, we’ll see if they hit a ceiling.

Gattis, Harbaugh realize their vision

KENT

SCHWARTZ

BRENDAN

ROOSE

