They Have Done It 

Jake Yono

2/8/24

JY Journalsim

The Michigan Wolverines are national champions after battling against literally everybody. They climbed up this massive peak and beat everybody on the off the field and they can truly say they are the best in the nation.

Leading up to 2021 Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines could not defeat a top 10 program. Every game I remember watching and they just display that same old statistic, but this all changed in 2021. Going into the year with Cade McNamara at QB our expectations were good but not as high as the Wolverines achieved. We lost to Kenneth Walker and Michigan State but later in the year Michigan finally defeated Ohio State after 8 dreadful years. After this, we went on to play Kurt Ferentz and his Iowa Hawkeyes. The Wolverines blew them out and this cemented them as the 3 seed and advanced the team into the college football playoff field where they would face the Dawgs of Georgia. I attended this game at the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens. In this game, the Bulldogs defeated Michigan with a score of 34-11 with pure dominance. One bright side from this contest was freshman quarterback J.J McCarthy making an appearance late in the game and threw for a passing TD. As Georgia would defeat Alabama in the title game while the Wolverines were getting ready for the 2022 season where Cade McNamara would transfer to Iowa while J.J McCarthy would develop into Michigan's starting Quarterback. 

Coming into the 2022 year Michigan fans had high hopes for their team. But the AP Poll didn’t agree as they had the Wolverines ranked around 7 to 8. They thought J.J. McCarthy was still developing but he wasn’t. The first 6 contests for the Wolverines were blowouts until they got to the #10 Penn State Nittany Lions at home. Michigan won this game 41-17. After this, they played the Spartans of Michigan State, the Knights of Rutgers, and the Cornhuskers of Nebraska resulting in all easy wins. The week before Ohio State the Wolverines had a tough game with Illinois, a low-scoring game resulting in a game-winning kick from the kid from Northville High School Jake Moody. Next week Michigan had to face Ohio State which would be their toughest game by far, going into the game the Buckeyes were favored by a touchdown in Columbus. Michigan walked into Columbus and took care of business heavily by defeating the Buckeyes 45-23. This is when everyone around this historic program said we have a team. Michigan has defeated Ohio State for the 2nd consecutive year and by fashionable margins. Next for Michigan was the Big 10 championship against the Boilermakers of Purdue and they had a big win by 3 touchdowns. At this point Michigan is undefeated going into the college football playoff for a second consecutive season the business is looking good. They earned the 2 seed and half to face the Horned Frogs of TCU in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. This game was a disaster for the Wolverines as they let up multiple defensive touchdowns. Michigan couldn’t play from behind and let up one of the more bitter defeats Michigan fans will ever see as the score resulted in 51-45 favoring the Horned Frogs. After this TCU got their crops rocked by the Dawgs from Athens Georgia making it their 2nd straight national title. There was indeed hope for Michigan leading up to the 2023 seasons as nearly all of their 22 offensive and defensive players were coming back for a positive 2023.

Going into 2023 this was going to be Michigan's best chance to win the national title. Their first 9 games leading up to Penn State were a pushover as their average margin of victory was 34 points. Then came their first real test, Big Noon Saturday at Beaver Stadium. This was one of those classic grind-it-out college football games with mostly running the ball in the 2nd half. Michigan had a stronger rushing attack as they won 24-15 and gained confidence going into the final 2 games of the season Maryland and Ohio State at home. Michigan was in control the whole game as they won 31-24 on the road against the Terps leading up to OSU at home. The closing spread was Michigan -3 at Home. The game was tied the whole way until Michigan took the lead in the fourth quarter and Rod Moore got the closing interception to seal the win for the third straight year for the Wolverines. At this point and after a 26-0 dismantling of the Hawkeyes for their 3rd consecutive Big 10 title. Things were looking good for Michigan as they earned the 1 seed and were 13-0 going into the college football playoff. In which they would play 4 seed Alabama at the Rose Bowl. Michigan and the Crimson Tide were evenly matched going into the game until in overtime Michigan marched down and scored and Alabama turned the ball over which ended the game l sent Nick Saben and Bama home and Michigan into the national championship game against the Washington huskies. Going into this game it was now or never for the Wolverines as most of their players were leaving after this season it was now or never for Michigan. The spread was -5 for Michigan with the only threat being Michael Penix and the offense but that didn’t matter as Michigan won 32-13 to secure their first national title since 1997 and to make all Michigan fans rejoice. 

I still think the playoff would have been changed with Georgia in it but Michigan built up a dynasty these last 3 years and hopefully, they can hold this standard for years to come, GO BLUE!!!