The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 
Wednesday, November 30, 2022 — 15 
Sports

Against Ohio State, J.J. McCarthy delivers on his promise

JARED GREENSPAN
Managing Sports Editor

COLUMBUS — As the minutes 
ticked down to the biggest game 
of his life, J.J. McCarthy — the 
19-year-old quarterback lauded for 
his Björn Borg-like poise and wed-
ded to his meditation regimen — 
struggled to remain calm. 
“I was a little amped up,” 
McCarthy conceded afterwards. 
“I’ve been waiting to play this game 
for so long.” 
On college football’s greatest 
stage — an undefeated showdown 
at the Horseshoe against No. 2 Ohio 
State, with drastic championship 
implications at stake — McCarthy 
gathered himself and delivered. 
He authored a brilliant, legacy-
building, four-touchdown perfor-
mance, vaulting No. 3 Michigan to 
a resounding 45-23 victory. 
“He was just on fire in every 
way,” Michigan coach Jim Har-
baugh said. 
This past week, Harbaugh kept 
his message simple. He wanted 
McCarthy to “have at it” come Sat-
urday, and McCarthy responded by 
mirroring Harbaugh’s sentiment, 
saying that he just wanted to be 
himself. 
And for the first time since 
being anointed QB1 way back in 
September, McCarthy did look like 
himself. He resembled the five-
star recruit whom Michigan fans 
pinned their hopes on during the 
program’s nadir in 2020, the player 
they clamored for throughout fall 
camp. 
That vision — those aspirations 
— built to the moment that trans-
pired Saturday. 
After the game, McCarthy sport-
ed a freshly-minted “2022 East 

Division Champions” hat, the tag 
still clinging to its exterior. Smil-
ing, he greeted a question about the 
Wolverines’ passing game with a 
sigh. 
“That was pretty good,” McCar-
thy said. “We were just waiting for 
it to come out. We knew what it 
was. It was just great it came out at 
this time.”
The quarterback of the Michi-
gan football program is subjected 
to scrutiny inapplicable to most 
other positions, and locales, in col-
lege football. Not even McCarthy, 
heralded as the precocious wun-
derkind, would be immune. 
And much of that criticism was 
warranted, too. McCarthy unseat-
ed senior Cade McNamara in part 
because of his arm talent, and yet 
the Wolverines’ vertical passing 
game proved virtually non-existent 
throughout the season. Before Sat-
urday, they had just six completions 
for more than 30 yards on the sea-
son. 
All year, McCarthy insisted that 
things would change — he refuted 
any notion of a disconnect, reason-
ing that the plays were working in 
practice, which provided a larger 
sample size. He stuck to that nar-
rative last Saturday after Michigan 
eked out a victory over Illinois, win-
ning in spite of its passing game. 
Then, his words felt hollow. 
Now, they feel ingenious. 
“We just kept hitting and hitting 
and hitting, and something’s gotta 
give,” senior receiver Cornelius 
Johnson said, grinning. “Today, 
when it mattered most, in front of 
millions of people, we were able to 
connect.” 

It mattered not only because of 
the stage, but also because of the 
circumstances. Standout junior 

running back Blake Corum, still 
plagued by the left leg injury he 
suffered last week, did not see the 
field after the first drive. Missing its 
bellcow, Michigan’s offense sagged 
through its opening three drives; 
McCarthy looked jittery, bailing in 
clean pockets and overthrowing 
open receivers. 
Then, lightning struck. 
On a third and nine early in the 
second quarter, McCarthy made a 
difficult throw across his body with 
pressure in his face. Johnson did 
the rest, catching the ball along the 
sideline and high-stepping out of a 
shoestring tackle all the way into 
the endzone, good for a 69-yard 
score. 
On the ensuing drive, McCar-
thy and Johnson connected again. 
Johnson dusted his defender with a 
double move, and McCarthy found 
him wide open in the middle of the 
field for a 75-yard touchdown. At 
once, Ohio Stadium hushed, the 
Buckeyes trailing. 
“We have trust in ourselves and 
the mindset that they can’t run with 
us,” Johnson said. “… We watched 
hours of film throughout this week, 
and it’s beautiful to see it all play out 
in a good way for Michigan.” 
Just as Michigan watched hours 
of film on Ohio State’s defense, 
the Buckeyes did the same when 
studying the Wolverines’ offense. 
Conscious of Michigan’s run-heavy 
identity, Ohio State packed the 
box, shoving in an extra defender 
instead of deploying a deep safety. 
Early, the strategy seemed to be 
working — the Wolverines had 10 
rush yards on five carries and just 
three points through three drives 
as a result. 
But on consecutive strikes to 
Johnson, McCarthy took advan-
tage. 

It almost felt like Ohio State was 
daring him to throw the ball. He 
felt that way, too.
“A little bit, yeah,” McCarthy 
said. “Especially at first when they 
were stopping the runs for two, 
three yards a carry and the safeties 
were playing so low. That excited 
me even more.” 
He channeled that excitement 
into a machine-like performance. 
Michigan set a definitive tone on 
the opening drive of the third quar-
ter, anchored by McCarthy. On his 
first designed run of the afternoon, 
McCarthy dragged a defender for 
19 yards and, on the following play, 
he placed a beautiful ball for fresh-

man tight end Colston Loveland, 
converting a 45-yard touchdown 
off a trick play. 
A drive later, McCarthy put the 
Wolverines in the driver’s seat. On 
third and two from the two yard 
line, he powered his way across the 
goal line, pinballing his way into 
the endzone. 
The Horseshoe fell silent. 
“I fight coach for more of those 
plays,” McCarthy said. “Just give 
me the ball when we need to get 
some gritty yards, and I’m gonna 
go get them.” 
As the game wound to a close 
and the inevitability of Michigan’s 
win set in, McCarthy turned his 

attention toward the stands. From 
the sideline, he waved to a sud-
denly-sparse crowd — Ohio State 
fans, once boisterous, had beelined 
toward the exits. 
Postgame, McCarthy — relent-
lessly humble — wouldn’t take 
credit for the scene. 
“I’m not worried about personal 
achievements,” he said when asked 
about his four touchdowns. “I’m 
just happy for every one of our 
guys. I couldn’t do it without the 
other ten guys on the field.” 
But against Ohio State, in the 
biggest game of Michigan’s season, 
the Wolverines couldn’t have won 
without McCarthy. 

In one afternoon in Columbus, 
Sainristil encapsulates his journey

COLUMBUS — In the spring, 
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh had 
a big request for Mike Sainristil: 
become a defensive back.
Heading into his fourth year as 
a Wolverine, Sainristil had always 
played receiver at the college level. 
He’d proven his ability to make 
blocks, reel in difficult passes and 
make a positive impact on the 
offense overall.
But as much as Sainristil could 
do on offense, Harbaugh believed 
the Michigan defense needed him 
more.
“Figured it was gonna be tough 
to replace (defensive back) Dax 
Hill, and just felt like Mikey had the 
skill set for it,” Harbaugh said Sat-
urday. “And he was smart enough 
to be able to do that.”
Saturday, in the biggest game 
of the third-ranked Wolverines’ 
season — and perhaps the biggest 
game the program has had in years 
— Sainristil epitomized his journey 
in a single afternoon. By the end 
of Michigan’s 45-23 win over No. 
2 Ohio State, he proved Harbaugh 
right, and proved any doubter 
wrong.
But not right away.
The Buckeyes targeted Sainris-
til on their first drive of the game. 
He was the link in the Wolverines’ 
armor that Ohio State thought to 
be weakest. At first, the Buckeyes 
appeared to be right. On a cross-
ing route in the endzone, receiver 
Emeka Egbuka found himself mul-
tiple steps in front of Sainristil, giv-
ing Ohio State an early 7-0 lead.
But, it was par for the course for 
Sainristil.
“Definitely,” Sainristil said Sat-
urday when asked if he knew he’d 
be targeted. “With the way Emeka 
Egbuka has been playing this year, 

we knew that was a guy that they 
wanted to get the ball to in certain 
situations.”
But it’s not just Egbuka; Sain-
ristil has found himself a target 
for opposing offenses on multiple 
occasions this season. Standing at 
5-foot-10 and 182 lbs, Sainristil isn’t 
a big body, and he can struggle to 
match up against tight ends and 
bigger receivers coming over the 
middle. It’s nothing he isn’t aware 
of himself.
“I won’t be surprised if I’m start-
ing to get attacked again,” Sain-
ristil said Nov. 1. “Just with the 
opponents we have coming up. But 
like I said, I’m just going to make 
sure that I do my job.”
His size, paired with his lack of 
experience prior to this season at 
defensive back, puts Sainristil at a 
disadvantage. It’s been part of his 
journey.
Since fall camp, Sainristil has 
embraced this. It’s not the situation 
he wants to be in, but it’s been his 
reality.
“Games are gonna go along and 
I’m gonna be put in different situ-
ations I’ve never been in simply 
because I’m on a new side of the 
ball,” Sainristil said Aug. 23. “So 
will I ever be 100% comfortable this 
year? Who’s to say. But you know, 
I’m gonna play to my best ability at 
all times.”
He’s fought through those grow-
ing pains, succeeding in coverage at 
times, getting blatantly outplayed 
on others. He’s found himself in 
the backfield being muscled out of 
the play, and then hitting home on 
blitzes in the same day.
It’s been a take-a-punch, return-
a-punch year for Sainristil, each 
wound teaching him a lesson and 
powering up his next strike.
Early Saturday, Egbuka and the 
Buckeyes put Sainristil through the 
ringer. But by the end of the day, 
Sainristil delivered the knockout 

punch.
With Ohio State down 31-20 and 
driving, a touchdown would’ve 
brought the game within one score 
and revitalized the scarlet and gray 
in Columbus. Sainristil lined up 
against tight end Cade Stover in the 
red zone. Stover, just like Egbuka 
did before, ran a crossing route, get-
ting multiple steps on Sainristil.
This time, though, Sainristil 
made the play.
Activating a second gear, Sainris-
til closed ground on Stover, extend-
ing his hand through the Buckeye 
tight end’s hands and knocking the 
ball loose, resulting in an incom-
plete pass.
“The only thing running through 
my head at that time was, ‘Just don’t 
give up another touchdown. Strain 
to the ball and get it out any way you 
can,’ ” Sainristil said. “… And I saw 
the ball go into the tight end’s hands 
and the only thing I was thinking 
was just ‘Punch it out and just don’t 
give up that touchdown.’ ”
Thanks to Sainristil, Michigan 
forced a field goal. On the very next 
play, sophomore running back Don-
ovan Edwards ripped off a 75-yard 
touchdown, 
effectively 
putting 
the game out of reach. Edwards, 
though, put the credit in Sainristil’s 
hands.
“What really kind of helped us 
out and saved the day was Mikey,” 
Edwards said. “… That’s basically all 
it is right there — coming up big in 
big situations.”
As the clock struck double 
zeroes, Sainristil’s joy radiated in a 
display of pride for all of Ohio Stadi-
um and the world to see — sprinting 
to midfield with a Michigan flag in 
hand, planting it into the block ‘O’.
Saturday, Columbus belonged to 
the Wolverines. And Sainristil, sit-
ting atop the list of contributors to 
that claim — after all the pride and 
pains of switching positions — was 
the one to declare it.

FOOTBALL

FOOTBALL

TESS CROWLEY/Daily

NICHOLAS STOLL
Managing Sports Editor

Back from injury, Donovan Edwards 
sparks offense in Corum’s absence 

COLUMBUS — An hour after 
the No. 3 Michigan football team 
finished dominating No. 2 Ohio 
State, Donovan Edwards sprinted 
down the tunnel that snaked from 
the visiting locker room and onto 
the turf. Raising his “2022 East 
Division Champions” hat high in 
the air, the sophomore running 
back shouted to anyone and every-
one, “Damn, this my stadium.” 
After rushing for 216 yards and 
two touchdowns, it was hard to 
disagree with him. 
Edwards entered the day with 
his status in question, having 
missed the previous two games 
with a hand injury. He ended it 
with two mesmerizing touchdown 
runs — one 75 yards, the other 85 
yards — to put the Buckeyes to bed 
for good. 
“I just had to do what I had 
to do,” Edwards said postgame. 
“Every running back has to be 
relied on. Blake went down, so 
somebody else had to step up. … 
That’s what we pride ourselves on.” 
As Edwards alluded to, all 
eyes were fixated on junior Blake 
Corum in the lead up to The Game. 
The standout Heisman candidate 
hurt his left leg in the second quar-
ter of last Saturday’s game against 
Illinois, an injury that threatened 
to derail the Wolverines’ season. 
Sixty-six minutes before kickoff, 
Corum emerged from the tunnel in 
lockstep with Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh as the last player to take 
the field for warmups. But Corum’s 
triumph would prove short-lived, 
as he played just three snaps on the 
opening drive before heading to 
the sideline for good, evidently still 
hampered. 
Last week, Corum’s absence 
nearly cost Michigan its unde-
feated season. Without him, the 
Wolverines struggled to move the 
ball, their rushing attack suddenly 
ineffective. 

In a similar scenario against the 
Buckeyes, Michigan again tried to 
stay true to its identity. 
“If 
somebody’s 
down, 
the 
whole running back room has to 
be accountable to get the offense 
going,” Edwards said. 
But early on, Edwards didn’t do 
much to ignite the offense himself. 
In the first half, he carried the ball 
five times for just nine yards, sport-
ing a soft cast on his right hand. 
Still, Michigan trusted Edwards, 
a trust built on past experience. 
When Edwards first arrived on 
campus as a freshman, he was in a 
cast for the entirety of spring prac-
tice while he recovered from sur-
gery. 
“He was catching everything 
with a cast,” Harbaugh remem-
bered Saturday, still in awe. “If he 
can catch everything, I mean cer-
tainly everybody without a cast can 
catch. … So I had little doubt, there 
was no pain management. Either 
there was not a lot of pain, or he’s 
just that tough of a guy because 
there’s no pain management to it. 
He’s as tough as it comes.” 
Sure enough, as Edwards grew 
more involved, Michigan’s rushing 
attack began to thrive, too. After 
managing just 10 rushing yards in 
the first half, Michigan ran the ball 
for 242 yards across the final two 
quarters — individually, Edwards 
racked up 207 yards on the ground 
in the second half alone. 
“It’s just like pipes burst-
ing,” sophomore quarterback J.J. 
McCarthy said. “We’re putting the 
pressure on and then eventually, it’s 
gonna burst.”
And once they burst? 
“It was over,” McCarthy said, 
smiling. 
On Michigan’s opening drive of 
the half, Edwards picked up a piv-
otal conversion on fourth and one 
that paved the way for the Wolver-
ines to take the lead. Notably, Mich-
igan went a different direction on 
third and one in the first half, hand-
ing it off to converted linebacker 
Kalel Mullings, who was stopped 

short of the first down marker. 
Edwards had his fingerprints 
all over the most consequential 
drive of the game, too — the 15-play, 
80-yard drive that chewed up 7:51 
of clock. He tallied 37 all purpose 
yards, helping Michigan sustain 
a possession in a way that seemed 
impossible with Corum sidelined.
Those efforts, of course, set the 
stage for the highlight reel plays 
that followed. 
With 7:23 left in the fourth quar-
ter, Michigan began its drive with 
the ball on the 25 yard line, up eight. 
Before the PA announcer could fin-
ish saying “Buckeye nation, we 
need you to get loud,” Edwards 
had found a crease and was sprint-
ing down the far sideline, evading 
a diving Buckeye on his way to the 
house. 
Four minutes later, it was déjà 
vu as Edwards exploded through a 
similar hole at the 15 yard line. With 
Ohio State selling out at the line of 
scrimmage in hopes of securing a 
third down stop, Edwards found 
himself in the clear. 
“It’s the offensive line first, they 
created such a big hole,” Edwards 
said. “If you watch the film, it’s just 
real easy to see. And then at that 
point, you just got to hit it and out-
run the third level defenders, the 
safeties and defensive backs. That’s 
how I was able to pull away with 
those long touchdowns.” 
It’s easier said than done — in 
the first half, some of those holes 
existed, but Michigan’s running 
backs failed to squeeze through 
them. Edwards didn’t make the 
same mistake. 
And as he high-stepped his way 
through the back of the endzone 
after his second touchdown, he 
waved his arms toward the stands 
while a rush of teammates hurried 
to greet him. The Wolverines led 
by 22, the disheartened Buckeye 
faithful streamed toward the exit, 
leaving a raucous sea of fans clad in 
maize and blue in their wake. 
By the end of it all, it did look a lot 
like Edwards’ stadium.

JARED GREENSPAN
Managing Sports Editor

FOOTBALL

GRACE BEAL/Daily

GRACE BEAL/Daily

