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.