Michigan 27, Alabama 20 (OT): Cinema
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Mikey Sainristil, a guy without a position or even a side of the ball just a year and a half ago, played all but four possible defensive snaps in Michigan’s biggest football game in a quarter century. He had double-digit snaps in three different areas of the field: Slot (36), in the box (14) and at a traditional corner spot (10). Hell, the generously listed 182-pound former slot receiver whose listed height of 5-foot-10 is only accurate if that measure includes him wearing cleats.even played two snaps on the defensive line.
The fifth-year senior captain earned a lot of distinctions during his glow-up over the past two seasons, but the one front of mind for me right now is First Guy To Break Into A Dead Sprint Toward Midfield in the aftermath of Michigan’s dramatic OT Rose Bowl victory over Alabama.
Appropriate, if you ask me, given he was the first guy off the line on a blitz designed to take away the left side for Alabama QB Jalen Milroe on the game’s final play. Double appropriate, if you ask me, given that he’s always the first Wolverine to touch the banner before every home game this fall.
On Monday night, when the signature backdrop of mountains had already been overshadowed by an increasingly darkening night sky, the only person who could slow Sainristil down was JJ McCarthy, who caught up to him at midfield and met him with an embrace. The two hugged for a good 15 seconds while chaos erupted around them.
There were confetti cannons, fireworks, and a home crowd-like roar from the Michigan faithful that traveled so well to a venue more than 2,200 miles away from the Wolverines’ home base. It was a scene like it was right out of a movie, which felt about right to Michigan fans, who — if they were anything like me — probably weren’t convinced in the moment that it actually was real.
But it was real. And it was every bit the storybook ending that a scripted movie would have. Michigan slayed the dragon that was Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. At the freaking Rose Bowl of all places. And it did so in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion in the type of a game that Michigan simply doesn’t win.
It was euphoric in a vacuum. But with the context of what this program has done — and what it hasn’t done — it’s hard for the game not to find itself at the tip top of most fans’ Greatest Michigan Victories list. Just a few short months ago, we were debating in this space which of Michigan’s last three wins over Ohio State was our favorite, a difficult task I likened to picking a favorite child. If this game joined the family as a fourth sibling, I worry the other three would instantly be off to their rooms jealous of their shiny, new, superior sibling.
The celebration came with the same confetti shower that Michigan had in the backdrop the last two seasons while members of the team stuck around on the field and watched Georgia and TCU celebrate. But this time, the confetti was Maize and Blue. And this time, the tears streaming down the faces of players and fans weren’t coming from a place of heartbreak.
It’s so rare to have a “walk-off” win in college football. It’s even more rare for it to happen at the College Football Playoff with everyone in America watching. And no, that’s not a blindly hyperbolic statement. Monday’s win was the most-watched College Football Playoff game since the concept was first introduced all the way back in 2014. It was the most-watch non-NFL sporting event in more than five years. It was one of the 10 more watched things on cable television … in the history of cable television.
Do you know when cable television was born? 1948. That’s a damn long time ago.
And even though it’s kind of an unspoken thing not to lean into this when rival fans use this as ammo for rivalry fodder because it actually does hurt a bit, 1948 also just so happens to be the last time this storied program won an outright, undisputed National Championship.
That all can change next Monday night against Washington.
According to the post-game participation report, Alabama — the team atop the 247Sports Team Talent rankings with 18 5-star athletes and 56 4-star athletes on its roster — used a grand total of 31 players on Monday. Michigan — the team with just two 5-star players and 11 fewer 4-star recruits on its own roster — had 45 different players take the field. Eleven of those 45 players — almost 25% of all Wolverines to play in this crucial, high-stakes matchup — were walk-ons. It’s a stark contrast of program philosophies. I’m not quite ready to call it a David vs. Goliath matchup, because I know how 95% of college football fanbases would roll their eyes at Michigan being placed in the “David” category. But look at how college football has played out over the past two decades and find me a single program that shouldn’t feel inadequate or intimidated when lined up across from Alabama, the gold standard of all-things-college-football in the modern era.
Noticed I said shouldn’t instead of wouldn’t. Because even though Michigan may not have matched up favorably against Alabama on paper (and trust me, the players knew that and read all the press clippings that said as much heading into this game), they certainly didn’t allow themselves to feel scared. Or more importantly, to play scared.
Michigan took the physical lead in Monday’s game from the get go. And outside of a mid-game surge where Alabama made some adjustments, the game started the same way it ended, with the “less talented” Wolverines winning where it matters most: in the trenches.
And while Michigan had many more contributions and had enough walk-ons play that it could have fit an entire starting line-up, the Wolverines needed their stars to be stars on Monday. And that’s exactly what happened.
One day before the Rose Bowl, I published my “Michigan roster ranking v 2.0 — postseason edition.” It’s an exercise designed to rank the Wolverine roster from 1-60. In other words, if you’re looking for a list of stars the need to step up, the top of the list is a great place to start. Here were the top 10 players on that list, in order:
J.J. McCarthy
Blake Corum
Mike Sainristil
Mason Graham
Will Johnson
Zak Zinter
Trevor Keegan
Kenneth Grant
Colston Loveland
Roman Wilson
Let’s briefly take a look at how all of them performed against Alabama:
J.J. McCarthy: 17-27, 221 yards passing, 3 TD, 0 INT, 25 rushing yards on 3 carries, led game-tying drive in final minutes
Blake Corum: 118 yards rushing + receiving, 2 TDs, including game-winner in OT
Mike Sainristil: Consistent pressure in Alabama backfield as blitzer, had TFL, was most versatile defender on either side of the ball
Mason Graham: Rose Bowl Defensive MVP, had defensive play of the game with huge TFL on 2nd and goal in OT
Will Johnson: Targeted two times in 33 coverage snaps, allowed 0 catches
Zak Zinter: Injured. Still on sideline supporting teammates
Trevor Keegan: Had 79.8 PFF pass-blocking grade in game where J.J. McCarthy took 0 sacks
Kenneth Grant: Had game-high 81.4 pass-rush grade by PFF. Played 34 defensive snaps, one shy of career high
Colston Loveland: Had key first-down catch on go-ahead TD drive in 2nd quarter. Tied for game high in catches by TE
Roman Wilson: Led or co-led all players in catches (4), yards (73) and receiving TDs (1). Scored game-tying TD with 93 seconds left in regulation.
In other words: That’s a whole lotta stars doing what stars do. Every healthy member of that list did what they needed to do to help deliver Michigan a victory. But the two guys at the top of the list had the most pressure to do so — and in turn, came up the biggest when they were needed the most.
J.J. McCarthy sat at a table in the bowels of State Farm Stadium a year ago in the aftermath of Michigan’s heartbreaking loss to TCU and said they’d be back. He privately told Jim Harbaugh they weren’t just coming back, either — they were winning it all.
Blake Corum felt the same, and decided to be less private about that feeling. The back who planned on last season being his final one in Ann Arbor until a freak injury dictated differently, grabbed a microphone during a Michigan basketball game Crisler Center last February and said the following:
"I don't got much to say. All I got to say is we’re going to run it back, we’re going to win a National Championship and we’re going to go down in history.
“That’s all I got. Go Blue.”
You know the difference between arrogance and confidence? Backing up what you say. And if there are two people who understand the weight of the expectations that their words bring on, it’s these two. They said them anyway. Not because they wanted to see their faces on TV — that’s going to happen regardless. They said it because they believed it. And in some weird way, I think they almost wanted it for accountability.
Both guys understood and continue to understand the assignment. Both for the Rose Bowl but also for this season in general.
The goal of this column isn’t to make you depressed. But let’s be honest with ourselves. The way college football is changing and the way this year’s Wolverine squad is constructed, this isn’t a case of an open window that’s only getting bigger. It’s not even an open window that’s going to look the same a year from now. It’s an open window that’s headed in the other direction for future seasons.
Next year’s team could (and to some extent, almost certainly will) look very different. In a worst case scenario, it could be without names like Harbaugh, McCarthy, Corum, Edwards, Barner, Zinter, Keegan, Nugent, Barnhart, Stewart, McGregor, Harrell, Jenkins, Goode, Colson, Barrett, Wallace, Moore, Johnson, Paige and Turner. That’s more than 21 names that almost certainly won’t all be gone, but if you look at each one on an individual level, no single departure would be a surprise at all.
It’s with that knowledge in the back of my mind that made Alabama regaining the lead in the fourth quarter, and Michigan’s continued struggles with special teams as the game went on, hurt even more than usual. I dubbed last year’s TCU game as a loss that will be tough to ever get over. But let’s not kid ourselves — Georgia was still sitting there waiting for Michigan in the title game. Monday’s contest against Alabama felt like a stomach punch game that would stick with you forever, even moreso than the TCU game. And I think what made it so painful (outside of the fact that Michigan was outplaying the Crimson Tide on both sides of the ball and still losing) is Michigan fans could feel that window closing in the moment.
But if there’s anything we’ve learned about J.J. McCarthy, it’s that he doesn’t care about the size of a window. I mean that in a very literal sense, and think about throws like the one he made to Roman Wilson against Ohio State in November or the one he put on a rope to Ronnie Bell in last year’s Big Ten Champioship Game. But I also mean it in the macro sense when it comes to the amount of time Michigan fans and players alike can really feel like National Championship contenders.
Even believing the window is actually open at all felt like a controversial take at some points of the season. But McCarthy, a guy who was labeled as a glorified game manager down the stretch largely because he played on a team who strategically decided to lean on the run over the pass for a variety of reasons, just took all that criticism and let it go in one ear and out the other.
Then on the biggest stage he’s ever played on — a Rose Bowl matchup against Alabama — all he did was outplay Jalen Milroe, the QB who came into Monday’s game with all the hype.
The ever-elusive Milroe ended up eating six separate sacks for a total of -49 yards. McCarthy wasn’t sacked a single time and picked up an efficient 25 yards on the ground on just three carries. This all came in front of a makeshift offensive line that had to adjust to the injury of Zak Zinter, the heart and soul of Michigan’s front five.
When it came to passing the ball, the difference between the two was even more obvious — just not in the direction that a lot of national analysts expected it to be. Milroe threw for just 116 yards on 23 attempts, good for a measley 5.04 yards per attempt (and 7.25 yards per completion). McCarthy was just shy of doubling Milroe’s output with a comparable workload. His 221 yards passing on 27 attempts equated to 8.19 yards per attempt and 13 yards per completion. Most importantly, McCarthy threw for 3 TDs while Milroe failed to throw a TD pass (or score a TD on the ground).
And just for dessert, McCarthy never turned the ball over (despite a scare to open the game). Milroe lost a fumble in the fourth quarter.
McCarthy, who is now 26-1 in his career as a starting QB, has a winning percentage of 96.3%. That’s now tied with Jameis Winston for the best percentage (minimum 20 starts) by a college football QB in more than 50 years. That means a win over Washington puts McCarthy at the solo No. 1 spot overall.
A game manager? More like a game changer. And when the lights were brighest on the sport’s grandest stage, McCarthy had the opportunity to sink or swim. He didn’t just swim — he levitated. After a shaky first snap of the game, he not only didn’t commit a single turnover in the game, he made athletic plays that arguably no other QB in Michigan history could have done that not only avoided would-be disaster plays, they ended up gaining big yards on drives that ultimately resulted in touchdowns. (Seriously, how is this play not getting more attention? Absurd.)
And after passing the J.J. McCarthy Legacy Drive test in the game’s final minutes, he now has a chance to add the biggest data point you can when constructing a legacy: a National Championship.
Let’s dig into some more takeaways from the game — including Michigan’s play in the trenches, Blake Corum’s heroics, Michigan’s special teams nightmares and Jim Harbaugh outcoaching the hell of out Nick Saban: