INDIANAPOLIS
—
Nobody
took Jim Harbaugh and Aidan
Hutchinson seriously back in July.
Yet there they were, sitting behind
a podium at Lucas Oil Stadium
during Big Ten Media Days,
insisting the Michigan football
team was ready to take the next
step.
Asked
about
beating
Ohio
State and reaching the Big Ten
Championship Game, Harbaugh
said the Wolverines would “get
there or die trying.” Hutchinson,
too, affirmed his willingness to die
for it. Given Michigan’s dismal 2-4
season in 2020, it was easy to scoff
at claims of culture change and
national contention.
But on Saturday night, their July
words came to life.
The second-ranked Wolverines
(12-1 overall, 9-1 Big Ten) defeated
No. 13 Iowa (10-3, 7-3), 42-3,
capturing the program’s first Big
Ten title since 2004. When the
clock ticked down to double-zeros,
maize and blue confetti rained
down on the same field where
everyone wrote off Harbaugh and
Hutchinson in July.
“We defied all expectations,”
Hutchinson said. “Nobody thought
we could do this. Nobody thought
we could ever do this, especially
not this season. And, man, we did
it. And we did it in a very dominant
fashion.”
Standing outside the postgame
locker room, shouts of “6-6”
and “two percent” reverberated
through the tunnel — references
to
the
Wolverines’
projected
6-6 record and the 2% chance
ESPN’s preseason algorithm gave
Michigan to win the Big Ten East.
ESPN’s calculations also estimated
the Wolverines had a 0.7% chance
to win the Big Ten Championship
and a 0.0% chance to make the
College Football Playoff.
“There’s
always
that
little
external
motivation,”
sixth-
year offensive lineman Andrew
Vastardis said. “… Sometimes, just
some of the stuff that’s out there,
you just take it and ride with it
and (add) fuel to the fire. So that’s
where that was from.”
That fuel was apparent on
Saturday night. From an identity
standpoint, Michigan and the
Hawkeyes appeared to be mirror
images entering this week. Both
programs pride themselves on
physical, run-first football.
When they stepped foot on the
field, however, it quickly became
apparent that wasn’t the case.
Iowa hadn’t allowed a run of
30-plus yards all season, but it
didn’t take long for Blake Corum
to change that. The sophomore
running back took an inside handoff
67 yards for a touchdown on the
Wolverines’ second possession.
On their next offensive play from
scrimmage,
junior
quarterback
Cade McNamara threw a lateral to
running back Donovan Edwards in
the flat. But instead of turning the
corner, the freshman reared off his
back foot and threw a deep ball to
junior receiver Roman Wilson, who
ran streaking behind the defense
all alone. The double-pass went
for a 75-yard touchdown, giving
Michigan a quick two-score lead.
“(That play) has been ready for
prime time about seven weeks,”
Harbaugh said. “… We had it
planned early. As soon as we got
into the left hash after the fourth
play, we were going to run that.
And (Edwards) has never missed
on that throw. Sometimes he
throws it off his left, his right foot.
He’s always on the move running
when he throws it. And every time,
it’s a dime.”
On the other side of the ball,
that was more than the Wolverines
needed.
After allowing a field goal late
in the first quarter, Michigan’s
defense gave up just 160 more
yards. The Wolverines held Iowa
to a 5-for-18 mark on third down
and didn’t surrender a single
point following the first frame.
Hutchinson recorded four tackles,
a sack and two quarterback hurries
en route to Big Ten Championship
Game MVP honors.
He’s the first defensive player
to ever win the award, but his
teammates believe he belongs in
the conversation for a bigger one.
“It’s
pretty
self-explanatory.
He deserves to be the Heisman
Trophy winner,” Vastardis said.
“He showed out every week, been a
game-changer.”
Senior running back Hassan
Haskins padded the Wolverines’
lead with a pair of second-half
rushing touchdowns, becoming
the first player in program history
to tally 20 in a single-season.
Michigan’s 42 points were the most
the Hawkeyes’ vaunted defense had
allowed since the 2015 Rose Bowl,
sealing their worst postseason
losing margin in program history.
Saturday’s victory cements the
Wolverines’
first-ever
College
Football Playoff berth, helping
Harbaugh restore his alma mater’s
place in the upper echelon of college
football. Prior to 2021, Michigan’s
seventh-year coach had yet to beat
Ohio State, claim a conference
title or lead his team to the College
Football Playoff. The fact that he
checked all three of those boxes
during the past week solidifies this
season as an inflection point for the
program.
Most players on the Wolverines’
roster
hadn’t
even
started
elementary school the last time
Michigan won a Big Ten title. Now,
that drought is over. And it ended
in the very stadium where nobody
thought it was possible in July.
That is, except for Harbaugh,
Hutchinson and the rest of the
Wolverines.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan captures elusive Big Ten Championship in 42-3 win over Iowa
Graduation Edition 2023 — 15
Sports
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Three
hundred and sixty-five days ago, the
Michigan football team experienced
agony.
After a long, arduous season, tears
ran and hopes were broken after the
Wolverines had their spirits crushed
by Georgia in the College Football
Playoff.
Everything Michigan worked
toward was washed away by red and
black confetti.
Saturday,
a
full
year
later,
Michigan got another chance.
Once
again,
the
Wolverines
were enveloped in their opponents’
colors. No. 3 seed TCU’s purple
and white permeated the air while
No. 2 seed Michigan looked down
at the ground — the site of another
disappointment. In the 51-45 loss,
the score didn’t matter as much
as the outcome; any margin of
defeat spelled the same result: the
Wolverines’ season, and any hope
of a national championship, would
be over.
And now, it is.
“When we were winning the
games, it was like nothing was
wrong,” senior defensive tackle
Mazi Smith told The Daily. “So
sometimes, things don’t go your
way. It’s the game of football. It’s a
will versus a will, and they wanted
it too.”
The evidence that something
was
wrong,
though,
appeared
early. At the beginning of the game,
Michigan looked lost.
The Wolverines capped their
first three drives with a turnover
on downs at TCU’s two-yard line,
a pick six and a three-and-out. The
Horned Frogs quickly jumped out
to a 14-point lead and Michigan was
floundering.
For the remainder of the half, the
Wolverines squandered drives.
Most notably, junior running
back Kalel Mullings fumbled on the
goal line after the defense brought in
an interception against quarterback
Max Duggan. The play before the
turnover, sophomore quarterback
J.J. McCarthy delivered a bomb
to junior receiver Roman Wilson.
Initially, the play was called a
touchdown. But after review, the
call was overturned, placing the ball
on the half-yard line.
Whether the initial play should’ve
resulted in a touchdown or not,
Michigan’s next job was simple.
“We got to execute on the goal line
there and put it in,” senior offensive
lineman Trevor Keegan told The
Daily. “And that’s what we’ve done
all season. There’s no excuse for us
not to get in there.”
Between
gut-wrenching
turnovers and anemic Wolverine
drives, Duggan began to work his
magic. While the ship Duggan
commanded
sailed
to
another
touchdown, Michigan’s mistakes
sank it to depths where it would
eventually drown — no matter how
close it got to resurfacing.
“We were so close,” junior
defensive lineman Kris Jenkins told
The Daily. “(But) we made too many
mistakes — they kind of got the best
of us.”
A last second 59-yard field goal by
graduate kicker Jake Moody made it
21-6 at the half, but the Wolverines
were still flailing. For any chance of
a turnaround, Michigan needed to
change something during the break
— and fast.
At first, the Wolverines appeared
to do that.
Out of half time, the defense got a
stop. A sputter in the red zone, and
Moody made it 21-9. A flea-flicker
touchdown to graduate receiver
Ronnie Bell cut the game to five
points. But just as Michigan gained
momentum, TCU took it away. A
marching touchdown drive and
their second pick six of the day put
the Horned Frogs up 34-16.
Then, all hell broke loose.
In three minutes and forty
seconds,
there
were
five
touchdowns. McCarthy and Duggan
rushing touchdowns went back-to-
back, followed by a touchdown run
from Mullings. After Smith forced
and recovered a fumble, an 18-yard
rushing touchdown from Wilson cut
the deficit to three. Then, a 76-yard
touchdown reception from receiver
Quentin Johnston put TCU back up
by 10.
“In the moment, I can’t lie, it’s kind
of exciting,” Wilson said. “Battling
with my friends, my teammates, and
just bouncing back. It sucks that we
lost, but it’s fun going back and forth,
being there just playing football.”
And the back and forth simply
continued.
The Horned Frogs notched a
field goal, while Michigan’s offense
briefly stalled. Then, the Wolverines
marched down the field, and with
McCarthy rolling right, a TCU
pursuer nipping at his heels, he
lobbed the ball to a wide-open
TCU ends Michigan’s season in stunning
Fiesta Bowl, 51-45
The 2021 gymnastics National
Championship came down to
the very last routine of the meet.
Junior Abby Heiskell stared
down the beam as she mounted
it. As she performed her routine,
she completed each skill with
an intention to do it perfectly,
a lesson Michigan coach Bev
Plocki has drilled into the mind
of her gymnasts all season.
Heiskell showed no ounce of
doubt in any of her skills, and
when she finished the routine
with a stuck dismount, she
proved that she was capable of
being there for her team in the
moment it needed it most.
Heiskell,
joined
by
her
teammates, could not peel their
eyes from the scoreboard, and
neither could Oklahoma. Waiting
for only junior Olivia Trautman’s
score on floor and Heiskell’s
score on beam, the teams sat
tied at 198.0750. Trautman’s
score came in at a 9.9375, leaving
Heiskell’s routine to need a score
of 9.8500 or better to win the
meet for the Wolverines.
When the number came in
on the scoreboard, a 9.9250, the
team, the coaches and the fans
erupted. Michigan would be
the 2021 National Champion,
the first Michigan women’s
gymnastics team to ever win a
National
Championship.
The
team clinched a program record
198.2500 in the competition of
its life.
“We’ve talked about this for
so long, and we were like, ‘Oh my
gosh, this is actually happening.
Oh my gosh, the meet is over,
and we’re national champions,’
” sophomore Sierra Brooks said.
“So much went into this, it’s so
amazing seeing our hard work
pay off.”
Michigan clinched the win,
in the end, by securing the
lead they held onto the entire
meet. Coming into the Finals,
Oklahoma was ranked first and
Michigan second, based on the
semifinal scores, but the Sooners
were never given a chance to
shine.
Michigan started the meet on
floor with six strong routines,
all counted scores at a 9.9125 or
higher. Junior Natalie Wojcik
led the pack, scoring a 9.9500,
landing all of her tumbling
passes smoothly and without
fault. Sophomore Gabby Wilson
also
posted
an
impressive
score of 9.9375, and the solid
performance
from
the
rest
of her teammates landed the
Wolverines at a 49.6250, only
0.0250 points short of their
record floor score yesterday.
Oklahoma’s start on vault left
them trailing by 0.0500 to start
the meet, a deficit they never
overcame. Utah had a solid
bars rotation as well, scoring
a 49.4250. Florida, who, prior
to the weekend, was seeded to
place first, had two falls on the
beam, forcing the team to count
one extremely low score that
they would never recover from.
Michigan carried their energy
to the vault for the second
rotation, where it was not only
seeded first in the country, but
had the highest team start value
of any team in the competition,
all vaults starting with a 10.0
start value. Heiskell began the
event, sticking her one and a half
Yurchenko, forcing the judges
to search for any deduction. Her
vault, and its score of a 9.9750
started the consistency of the
event, which was followed up by
another stuck vault from Wojcik,
earning herself a 9.9375 and
Brooks, who notched a 9.9750.
The team’s vault performance
extended their lead over the rest
of the field even further, gaining
a 0.1375 lead over Oklahoma at
the halfway mark.
“(Vault’s) just been amazing,”
Michigan coach Bev Plocki said.
“At the beginning of the year,
we were doing big vaults, but we
couldn’t get the landings, and
it was a process. We absolutely
peaked at the right time this year.
… Right before the championship
part of the season, we started
being able to nail those 1.5s.”
Heiskell
started
off
Michigan’s next rotation on
bars with a stuck dismount. The
Wolverines’ top scores of the
rotation came from Brooks and
junior Abby Brenner in her first
competitive routine in months
since hurting her ankle at the
Big Five meet on Feb. 27. Their
clutch
performances
earned
both gymnasts a 9.9250, and kept
Michigan with the same lead
over Oklahoma as they had going
into the event.
DANIEL DASH
2021 Daily Sports Editor
NICHOLAS STOLL
2022 Managing Sports Editor
Michigan clinches first National
Championship title in school history
SAMI RUUD
Daily Sports Writer
ALUM MILES MACKLIN/Daily
TESS CROWLEY/Daily
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
ALUM ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Read more at MichiganDaily.com