Michigan Football: State Of The Program
The one-sidedness of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry continued in 2018 with the Buckeyes winning their fifteenth of their last sixteen games against the Wolverines. Michigan fans thought this was finally the year the Wolverines would prevail, and they weren’t alone: Michigan entered the game as a favorite, thanks to one of the best defenses in the country, and smoked their toughest opponents after an initial loss to Notre Dame, while Ohio State stumbled through a relatively easy schedule that included a blowout loss at Purdue and a fortunate ending in overtime at Maryland.
The Game began with a Michigan three-and-out and an Ohio State touchdown drive that included three quick passes from quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who led the Buckeyes down the field in under two minutes. From the opening drives, the contest was rarely competitive as the Buckeyes blistered the Wolverine defense with explosive passing plays, while Michigan couldn’t move the ball themselves. All of Michigan’s momentum from their Revenge Tour (a term coined by defensive standout Chase Winovich) season was quickly deflated. Ohio State kept the Wolverines in the game as they struggled with penalties and multiple overthrows by Haskins to wide-open receivers. While Michigan pulled within two points after a botched kick return with 41 seconds left in the first half, the Buckeyes sucked out all of Michigan’s remaining life when they ended the half with a lightning-quick drive that resulted in a field goal.
The second half was far worse for the Wolverines as it became apparent that Jim Harbaugh and staff had no adjustments to fight back against the Buckeyes. Down eight with under five minutes to go in the third, Ohio State blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown. On the ensuing drive, Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson threw an interception at the Wolverines’ own 18-yard line. Ohio State scored another touchdown two plays later to put the game out of reach. Just like that, what seemed like Michigan’s breakthrough season under coach Harbaugh is now over. They can still win the Peach Bowl against Florida on December 29 and earn an 11-win season, but they haven’t been able to shake the Buckeye-shaped monkey off their backs.
Michigan entered the game with an identity that epitomized Harbaugh’s coaching career: an aggressive defense that plays man-to-man in the secondary so they can overwhelm the opposing backfield with pressure, and a powerful rushing offense buoyed by a play-action based passing attack. Transfer quarterback Shea Patterson was a perfect fit in Harbaugh’s system, and while he struggled in the opener in South Bend, he quickly improved to lead Michigan through a brutal schedule with a ten-game win streak. The Wolverines made it to their matchup with then-15th ranked Wisconsin by mid-October unscathed by the inferior teams from their early schedule. Michigan’s defense was devastating, limiting Badger quarterback Alex Hornibrook to only 100 passing yards on 20 attempts. While they only led by six at halftime, the Wolverines dominated the second half and put the rest of the Big Ten on notice.
The Wolverines’ next hurdle would be to beat Michigan State in East Lansing. The Michigan-Michigan State rivalry had a strange recent history with Harbaugh at the helm. The 2015 iteration ended with one of the most stunning plays in college football history when the Wolverines botched a punt and the Spartans returned it for a touchdown in the closing seconds to win. The 2017 version featured five Wolverine turnovers and the Spartans still only won by four points. This year, though, Michigan would not be held back by flukes; they won by two touchdowns while making Spartan quarterback Brian Lewerke look even worse than Hornibrook did the week prior. He threw for just 66 yards on 25 attempts.
After the bye week, only one test remained. Top 15 side Penn State came to the Big House, and proceeded to get crushed 42-7, with the Nittany Lions’ only touchdown coming in garbage time. That performance got everyone’s attention; Michigan was now a favorite to reach the College Football Playoff for the first time all season. The hype for the final game of the season took over as Harbaugh and the Wolverines seemed destined to beat the Buckeyes for the first time since 2011.
In the end, Michigan did what Michigan does best: play themselves into a game with massive stakes and blow it. The Wolverines have lost every game that pitted Harbaugh against Ohio State coach Urban Meyer (this game being Meyer’s last) and Meyer wildly outcoached him each time. Michigan fans have high expectations, and albeit with the blip in Wolverine history with the Rodriguez and Hoke eras, the team has traditionally played themselves to the cusp of a great season. After yet another disappointing game, fans are struggling to remember when Michigan last won a high-stakes game of this caliber. With the lack of success against its biggest rival and in major bowl games, the Wolverines are playing themselves out of blue-blood program status.
To jog Wolverine fans’ memories -- Michigan’s last high-stakes win was in 2003 against Ohio State to win the Big Ten and play in the Rose Bowl. The Wolverines were ranked fifth, while the Buckeyes were ranked fourth, and running back Chris Perry led Michigan to a 35-21 win with two rushing touchdowns on his way to finishing fourth in the Heisman trophy race. That’s the last time Michigan beat a highly ranked Ohio State team. They’ve won one major bowl since then in 2012 when they beat Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl in Brady Hoke’s first season as coach. It was a solid season, but Michigan didn’t win the Big Ten due to a loss to their in-state rival Michigan State, even though they beat an unranked Buckeye squad. Thus, the 2003 edition of The Game stands as the last time Michigan exceeded fans’ expectations and rose to the occasion to win a huge game for the program.
Michigan’s blue-blood status has become uncertain in recent seasons. Throughout history, there are eight programs that have consistently fallen under this terminology; they’re blue-blood programs according to the consensus of the public college football fan conscience. Alabama, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, USC. That’s it. It’s easy to see why these eight schools are considered in such rare air; most have won multiple national championships, especially in recent memory, and each one has been great across multiple eras of the sport. Whereas the Miami and Florida State types were great for one (albeit prolonged) era, these eight have been contenders throughout college football history.
The reverence for Alabama’s football team is obvious. Since Nick Saban returned to college football with the Crimson Tide in 2007, he’s coached the program to five national championships in an era where there has been a specific game to determine the champion. The Tide have been a mainstay at the top of the polls over the last ten seasons, but this hasn’t been the only dominant era for them. Bear Bryant coach the program to five national championships (as determined by the Associated Press) himself between 1961 and 1979, finishing off the 1970s with back-to-back titles in 1978 and 1979. Alabama easily belongs amongst the best.
While Nebraska hasn’t won much of anything this century, they had eras of dominance over the last half of the 20th century. They dominated the early 1970s behind coach Bob Devaney and Heisman winner Johnny Rodgers, winning national titles in 1970 and 1971. Tom Osborne’s seamless transition led to continued dominance in the 1980s and 1990s, adding two more championships in 1994 and 1995 (and a third in 1997 from the Bowl Alliance). Texas hasn’t had recent success either, but they’ve won three national championships since 1963, including the 2005 title that was the result of one of the greatest football games of all time, in the Rose Bowl against USC.
The other four programs all have at least three national championships in the last 50 years and have made the College Football Playoff or the BCS National Championship in recent years. USC had a recent dominant run under Pete Carroll, Oklahoma under Bob Stoops, and Notre Dame under Brian Kelly. The news of Urban Meyer’s retirement recently came out; his legacy on the field lies in Ohio State’s title win in the first year of the playoff and Meyer’s undefeated record against Michigan.
Prestige in college football isn’t just about resumes; it’s also about moments. Even though it happened more than thirteen years ago, most fans of age can remember where they were when Vince Young scrambled for the game-winning touchdown in the thrilling championship Rose Bowl game. Older fans will remember Nebraska’s win in the Game of the Century (one of many such games) in 1971, where Johnny Rodgers’ explosive punt return caused announcer Lyell Bremser to exclaim “Man, woman and child did that put 'em in the aisles!” Michigan’s all-time moment came in the first Ohio State matchup of Bo Schembechler’s tenure, which is still known as one of the greatest upsets of all time. The twelfth-ranked Wolverines defeated the top-ranked defending champions to go to the Rose Bowl, where they, of course, lost to USC. Michigan has since played in fifteen more Rose Bowls, only winning four.
Michigan has a storied history that is slowly being erased by the gap between their last big win. Figures like Bo, Charles Woodson, Desmond Howard, and Anthony Carter are what make the program great, but without postseason success, the narrative can quickly turn to the Wolverines as the most overrated program rather than one of the greats. Michigan hasn’t had the moments that can elevate a program into blue-blood status for a long time. They’ve had opportunities since their 2003 victory over Ohio State, including the 2005 Rose Bowl where they lost on a last second field goal to Vince Young’s Longhorns and the 2006 Ohio State game where they and Buckeyes were the top two ranked teams in the country. A win in the latter would’ve surely sent Michigan to the BCS Championship Game, which they never reached in the sixteen years of its existence.
The Wolverines have had their chances in the early-goings of the Harbaugh era as well. After an otherwise first season that included the brutal loss to Michigan State and a pasting at home to Ohio State, they made it all the way to #2 in the country the next season before they lost in Kinnick Stadium to Iowa on a last second field goal. The Wolverines, then ranked third, coughed up a 17-7 lead in the third quarter against second-ranked Ohio State to lose in double overtime, after it appeared like the Wolverines might have gotten a 4th down stop to end the game before the play was reviewed. The Buckeyes scored on the next play to win the game and the Wolverines were selected for the Orange Bowl after missing out on the Big Ten Championship. Continuing with the theme of their season, Michigan held a three-point lead with under two minutes left in the game before Florida State sealed the game with a touchdown on the final drive.
Michigan had a similarly talented team this season and took care of business against most of the Big Ten’s toughest teams. But when it came down to the big moment, just like the face of the program before him (Bo), Harbaugh couldn’t lead his team to victory. The Wolverines’ success qualified them for another major bowl and a win against Florida would lift the spirits of the program, but Michigan needs to show that they can contend with the best teams in the country before they’re fully back to blue-blood status. The Urban Meyer era ends in Columbus with a national title and two additional major bowl wins. Michigan has only won two major bowls since their national championship over twenty seasons ago and hasn’t lived up to their end in the best rivalry in the sport. For Michigan’s history to remain storied, they need to turn their big game record around fast.