Live Forever

Game MVP Jordan Marshall; muddied but unbowed (Patrick Barron)

"Maybe I don't really wanna know

How your garden grows

'Cause I just wanna fly

Lately, did you ever feel the pain

In the morning rain

As it soaks you to the bone?"

--"Live Forever" by Oasis, the third single from the band's 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe

Let's be clear. Few, if any, of us expected this. We were riding high off the 13-10 victory over #2 Ohio State in Columbus, yes, a thing that still happened, or we were looking forward to what Bryce Underwood would bring next year. All of Michigan's top-drawer guys who could opt out for the draft got their pat on the back and a thank you Instagram post from fans because we understood. There was little to be gained from this. Alabama was mad that they were excluded from the CFP, that major players were not opting out, and that they were a three-score favorite. So, let's just kick it off, hope for the best, and look ahead to next season.

Maybe I just wanna fly

Wanna live, I don't wanna die

Maybe I just wanna breathe

Maybe I just don't believe

Maybe you're the same as me

We see things they'll never see

You and I are gonna live forever

One of the funniest things to realize about "Live Forever" is that it's just the same verse and chorus repeated three times. In that way, it is not fundamentally different from "Mr. Brightside."    So perhaps it is fitting that this game ended up being a bookend of 2024, starting in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day against Alabama and ending in Tampa on New Year's Eve against Alabama. The Michigan world is a very different place than it was 365 days ago, but there are some similarities. One of them is simple, Michigan can still play pretty darn good defense. Even without their three likely first-rounders on the defense, Michigan can still play some ball. Add to that the fact that Michigan got an absolute gift from the weather in the first quarter, and Michigan's defense suddenly put Jalen Milroe in the spin cycle. To wit.

The biggest complaint might have been that Michigan was only leading 16-0 after starting all those drives, but one was in the Alabama red zone. But if you've watched Michigan all year, you knew that was just how it would be. The weather improved, and the game settled into a defensive slugfest until Alabama used a bit of tempo and some favorable formations and matchups to get a touchdown and bring it to 16-7. The more significant issue arose when Michigan couldn't burn enough clock or get close enough for a long Zvada field goal attempt, instead opting to pin Penn State deep, which they did. But then this happened.

That felt like Chekov's timeout, especially in the fourth quarter, when Michigan was letting Alabama drive down the field again at the end of the half, needing a touchdown to win. While Michigan could limit Alabama to just a field goal, going into the half up six after you had been so effective in limiting what Alabama could do was frustrating. But it was also perfectly 2024 Michigan, so...

The third quarter settled into a very clear "no one can do very much" half, and then Davis Warren was injured, which meant that Alex Orji had to come in with all his known limitations. The ESPN broadcast team was openly calling for Michigan to let its hair down, open up the playbook, and do things it had not done all year. Mind you, with a backup quarterback who had been benched due to his propensity to turn it over at the most inopportune times and an interim offensive coordinator with minimal playcalling experience. So when Alex Orji threw an interception that put Alabama in business at midfield, you would be forgiven if you presumed this was the point where the other shoe dropped, the wheels came off, etc. Except, they didn't. The defense got just enough pressure on Jalen Milroe to force a six and out, which included a turnover on downs. Michigan would march down, get another field goal from arguably the 2024 team MVP, Dominic Zvada, and take a 19-10 lead. Yes, I wanted Michigan to go for it on fourth and less than 1 from the Alabama 19, but you take the points, go up two scores, and force Alabama to match. Alabama did get a field goal to bring it back to a one-score game, setting Michigan up with 4:38 left. It looked like the Tide would force a three-and-out when Jordan Marshall stopped the first down run after just two yards beyond the line of scrimmage, only to see defender Justin Jefferson punch, actually punch, Max Bredeson, earning a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct flag and Michigan getting a fresh set of downs at their own 42. But Michigan could do nothing with it, and the hope was that new punter Hudson Hollenbeck would continue his excellent day, which he did, dropping a 50-yarder on the Alabama size, only to see Ryan Williams finally make his presence felt and return it all the way to the Tide 44 yard line. The sequence that followed was a microcosm of Alabama's offense on the day, a series of incomplete passes mixed with big enough plays to put Milroe and friends on the Michigan fifteen and eventually set up a familiar story: 4th down in the Michigan red zone needing a touchdown at the end of the game to win and Jalen Milroe to get the snap. It was only fitting that Rayshaun Benny, who broke his ankle in the Rose Bowl to start the year, came in with pressure on Milroe, arms raised in pursuit to force a bad throw by Milroe, which fell harmlessly to the ground. Milroe stopped; Michigan wins again.

I don't know what to make of this Michigan season. On the one hand, it was deeply frustrating on the surface because the quarterback play was so middling. On the other hand, three of Michigan's losses were to teams in the CFP, a fourth was their only West Coast game (where every ETZ team in the Big Ten struggled this year), and the fifth was to a ten-win Illinois team. But this is also a team that underachieved on the field based on what they had on paper but simultaneously beat #2 Ohio State on their own field for their fourth straight win in the series and beat a #11 Alabama team that was trying to show it deserved to be in the field of the College Football Playoff. It may not need to make sense. Trying to find narrative sense in a season doesn't always have to exist. We want a narrative to make all these things that happened make sense, but sometimes, they don't. Which is great about sports in general and college football in particular. Things don't necessarily have to make sense because it would be boring if they did. Michigan should not have beaten Ohio State or Alabama logically, but they did, and it's pretty great. Having climbed the mountain last year, to have done the thing that so many presumed was impossible, it feels like MCU movies after Endgame. The grand story arc is completed, and we must now find a new story to tell with some of our familiar characters. The result is uneven, with some high points and low points, but when it hits, man, it still hits.

Until August 30, we'll see you at the Big House for New Mexico. Go Blue.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 19-13 is NOT a Scorigami (1938 Penn (the Ivy one), the only other entry, which was win #329.)
  
• 51,439 were in attendance in rainy, then sunny Tampa, the smallest crowd Michigan played in front of this season.
  
  
• Michigan moves to 4-3-0 all-time against the University of Alabama (they were 2-3 against Alabama on this date in 2023.)
  
• Michigan moves to 2-2-0 all-time on December 31 (The losses, of course, are the CFP semifinals against Georgia and TCU.)
  
  
• Michigan moves to 14-4-1 when scoring exactly 19 points (this includes that Illinois game from 2022).
• Michigan moves to 47-12-1 all-time when allowing 13 points to the opposition (Yes, that includes the 13-13 tie in the 1992 Ohio State game.)
• Michigan has won 31 games all-time by precisely 6 points, most recently, last year's Ohio State game.

Wonderwall

 

It is perhaps only fitting that this game's winning points were scored by players wearing 19 and 96 (Michigan Athletics)

"Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you
By now, you should've somehow realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now

 

And backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before, but you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now"

 

--"Wonderwall" by Oasis, the fourth single from the band's 1995 album (What's the Story) Mornin Glory

"Wonderwall" is inevitable.  Dread it, run from it, Wonderwall arrives all the same.  2.1 billion streams on Spotify inevitable.  Inevitable as Michigan beating Ryan Day's Ohio State team.

Look, I'm not going to tell you I called this, or predicted this, or thought it was going to happen.  I spent much of this week hoping Michigan would just keep this game respectable, perhaps close until halftime, enough to say "ahh well, nevertheless" when Ohio State pulled away in the second half on their way to Indianapolis for the first time since 2020.  All good things and what not.

So, when Michigan held Ohio State to a field goal on their first offensive drive, it seemed like a win.  The dam was holding.  Then Michigan went on an 11 play, 72 yard drive, only to get stopped at the OSU 3.  I still liked the aggressiveness to go for it there, but it didn't work.  Except, well, fortune favors the bold and three plays later, Michigan got an Aamir Hall pick and set up at the OSU 2.  Two Kalel Mullings runs later and Michigan was up 7-3.  Michigan led in this game after both team had possessed the ball.  This seemed unfathomable, and yet.  And yet.

There are so many small moments in this edition of The Game that add up.  Ohio State's missed field goals, the backbreaking interceptions that don't actually break anyone's back.  Michigan doing just enough to not let Ohio State possess the ball.  Ohio State doing just enough to make their fans mad.  But in the end, the legacy drive of this game is going to be the final field goal drive.  Michigan counted Kalel Mullings (and a sprinkling of Jordan Marshall) to bring them home.  There was only one spectacular run and it was when Mullings ran into the line on third down, got nothing and bounced outside for 27 yards to put Michigan not only within Zvada's range, but inside the red zone with a fresh set of downs.  Michigan could now burn more clock and hope to, at worst, come away with a three point lead.  That Ryan Day helped matters by attempting to call a second straight timeout, which had been illegal since 2023, and having to take an illegal substitution penalty out of a time out, gifting Michigan first and goal on the four meant they had to burn the remainder of their time outs, watch Zvada kick the field goal, and then hope they could get something together in the remaining 45 seconds They could not.  Michigan got some pressures, Howard and his all-America receivers could only muster one yard and Michigan could, once more, kneel it out.

And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
But I don't know how

Because maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall

Had I written this on Saturday, I might have had some thoughts about the post-game unpleasantness that might have seemed original or novel, but in the harsh light of Sunday morning, it is best looking at it as a thing that happened and we can move on from it.

Michigan ended up being inevitable in a way that Ohio State felt like in the 2010s, in a way that Michigan felt like in the 1990s.  This game was a wonderful combination of the 1993, 1995, and 1996 editions of The Game.  Michigan under-performed expectations all year, even when adjusted for context, but they actually did start playing better as November wound on.  One of the questions that I saw people raising during the week was whether Sherrone "got" The Game and would he be able to demonstrate something novel, something big in the face of the overwhelming odds.  And then they just went out and won The Game with this version of Michigan against that version of Ohio State.  Michigan assures it won't finish below .500 this season, even with the likely opt outs in the bowl game.  Michigan gets some recruiting and portal momentum going into the off-season.  No one knows what next season holds.  But for this season, a beautiful capper of an often frustrating and confusing year.  Ohio beaten, once more.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 13-10 is NOT a Scorigami (2000 Wisconsin, the only other entry, which was win #800.)
  
• 106,005 were in attendance.
  
  
• Michigan moves to 62-52-6 all-time against Ohio State University
  
• Michigan moves to 3-5-0 all-time on November 30 (There's a lot of Ohio State games in there, including the 1918 which was the first time these two teams ended the season with each other.  It also includes the 1905 loss to Chicago 2-0 where the 56 game unbeaten streak by Yost's 1901-1905 teams.)
  
  
• Michigan moves to 19-16-1 when scoring exactly 13 points (yes, that includes the 1992 tie with OSU).
• Michigan moves to 57-10-1 all-time when allowing 10 points to the opposition (Yes, that includes the 10-10 tie in the 1973 Ohio State game.)
• Michigan has won 50 games all-time by precisely 3 points, most recently, this year's Jug game.