It was a battle of unbeatens in the final four-team CFP title game, and Michigan emerged victorious for their first championship since 1997. Here are some winners and losers from UM’s 34-13 win over Washington.
Winner: Michigan
Congratulations to the Michigan Wolverines! They are champions of the 10th and final iteration of the four-team College Football Playoff, which is set to expand next season.
Seriously though, I’m happy for them. It’s Michigan’s second national title and first since 1997. When they won it 26 years ago, they weren’t even the undisputed champions; the national champion was still determined by a collection of voting systems after the season, and out of the five voting systems used at the time (AP, ESPN, FWAA, NFF, USA), ESPN and USA picked Nebraska as their national champion. This time, they truly stand alone as the kings of college football.
After almost a decade stuck in a cave filled with scrutiny and hullabaloo (especially this past one), Jim Harbaugh finally reached the mountaintop at his alma mater. After years of continuously falling short of expectations and losing to arch-rival Ohio State, Harbaugh got over the hump, and his legacy will forever be encrusted in gold at the University of Michigan. It was also a revenge game for Harbaugh against Washington; back when he quarterbacked the Wolverines in 1984, he threw three picks and fumbled twice in a 20-11 loss to the Huskies. Vengeance achieved, just from the sidelines this time.
There are so many awesome stories who now have a glorious chapter. Blake Corum, a program lynchpin, couldn’t play in last year’s semi final loss to TCU because of a knee injury; he ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns on Monday. Donovan Edwards, who struggled in a backup role this season but never publicly complained about anything, ran for 104 yards and two touchdowns.
The offensive line, who lost their heartbeat in guard Zak Zinter to a broken leg during the Ohio State game, never seemed to skip a beat. They continued to dominate, and they had one of their best performances of the season against Washington. Their togetherness showed early and often, as they continuously overpowered UW in the trenches. They proved once again that, in order to win the national championship, you need to be strong upfront. Michigan certainly fit the description.
Several players will end their tenured UM careers having never lost to Ohio State, something that hasn’t happened since the mid-1990s. Whether Harbaugh returns to UM remains to be seen, and the future of Wolverine football is, just like every other program in the nation, uncertain. But everyone who returned in the pursuit of a national championship was rewarded.
This season, it literally was Michigan versus everybody. And Michigan won.
Loser: Washington’s identity
I was mostly certain that this game would fall into one of two categories: it was either going to be a mucky slugfest or a frenetic shootout, especially considering the way both teams went about scoring. Michigan thrived on the back of a good ol’ fashioned smash mouth rushing attack on offense, and their defense would suffocate opponents to finish the job. Washington, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, thoroughly enjoyed throwing the ball super duper far and scoring lots of points, which usually covered for a middling defense.
The game was, of course, a combination of the two. Michigan scored 34 points with the help of a dominant first half rushing performance. Michigan was tonka-trucking on the ground from the get-go; per usual, the Wolverines offensive line was dominating, and it led to three humongous runs (two of which saw Donovan Edwards score). Edwards and Blake Corum gained 174 rushing yards in the first quarter; not only that, 153 of them were before contact. Michigan looked like themselves, and it propelled them to immense success. Their 303 rushing yards were the most ever in a CFP championship game. J.J. McCarthy was only 10/18 for 140 yards, but just like most of this season, he didn’t need to be great because of how good the rushing attack and defense were.
The Huskies, on the other hand, did not look like themselves. Their usually-electric aerial attack was grounded for most of the night, forcing their defense to bail out a struggling offense (their previous 14 games had seen mostly the opposite). Penix, a savant of sideline deep shots, didn’t even attempt one until the 5:30 mark in the third quarter, and he didn’t complete one that actually counted until the 6:04 mark in the fourth quarter. Even so, the 44-yard rainbow to Rome Odunze was made possible in large part due to a busted coverage by Michigan.
Now, Washington wasn’t completely stripped of their identity. They still fought incredibly hard in the face of likely defeat. All season long, the Huskies refused to die. Whenever they’d get knocked down, no matter how dire the situation looked, they always found a way to get back up and emerge victorious. For a few moments in the second half, it looked like they might come back. Penix and starting running back Dillon Johnson were clearly playing through immense pain, but they kept marching on. After all, they went into halftime down just seven despite being dominated for most of the first 30 minutes. It felt like this tweet might come to fruition again.
Unfortunately for UW, they ran out of the purple and gold magic that spangled opponents for all of 2023. Yes, they’d been forged in the unique waters of the Pac-12, waters that required them to constantly battle adversity after dark. But on Monday, Washington finally died. Late in the fourth quarter, UW was down 14 facing a fourth-and-13 at the UM 30-yard line. Penix tried to throw a laser to Jalen McMillan, but he overshot him, and the pass was intercepted by Mike Sainristil, who returned it 81 yards to set up Michigan for a potential game-sealing touchdown. Two plays later, Corum barreled into the endzone to essentially put the game on ice.
It reminded me a little bit of the following scene from Inside Out. If you’ve already seen it and understand the meaning behind it, I apologize in advance for potentially making you emotional:
To me, the elephant (Bing Bong) represents Washington, and the rainbow-powered wagon represents Washington’s season. On their journey to the top, they were propelled by magic that always allowed them to emerge from defeat, even when it seemed close to certain. But on Monday night, the rainbow power went out. Penix and the Huskies couldn’t escape the canyon, as joy reached the summit without them. Instead, they stayed within the abyss, with their magic vanishing along with the conference that has produced so much of it for decades.
Loser: The storylines that would’ve glistened if Washington won
If you think this is starting to sound like a pro-Washington piece, I understand. This isn’t to take away the Michigan-centric storylines that were deservedly highlighted; rather, this is an acknowledgement of what also could’ve been highlighted, because Washington had a bunch of really cool ones themselves.
How funny would it have been for the final champion of the four-team CFP, a tournament that has largely been dominated by four teams (23 of the 40 total appearances have been from Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma) and hasn’t featured the Pac-12 much at all (three total appearances), to be a very goofy and flawed Pac-12 team whose journey to the mountaintop was anything but dominant.
Washington’s also unique from a team-building perspective, as the Huskies are representations of both the old and new college football worlds. On one hand, they didn’t have a single five-star recruit on their roster and landed just one since 2020 (QB Sam Huard in 2021, but he transferred to Cal Poly last January). Since 2020, their 247 recruiting class rankings have been 16th, 30th, 95th and 26th. On the other hand, they’ve also capitalized on transfer portal acquisitions recently. Penix (Indiana), Johnson (Mississippi State), wideout Ja’Lynn Polk (Texas Tech), wideout Germie Bernard (Michigan State), offensive tackle Troy Fautanu (Liberty) and cornerback Jabbar Muhammad (Oklahoma State), all of whom contributed heavily to UW’s success, started their collegiate careers elsewhere.
Many stories would’ve been put on an even higher pedestal. It would’ve been a deserving win for Penix, who turned into a legitimate NFL prospect after suffering four season-ending injuries at Indiana. It also would’ve been a ceremonious ending for head coach Kalen DeBoer, who started his coaching career at the University of Sioux Falls and went 67-3 (!) over five seasons.
Finally, it would’ve been a heartwarming sendoff for the Pac-12 Conference, a conference that will soon be no more. It also would’ve been liberating for the self-proclaimed “Conference of Champions” that have kicked butt in basically every other sport besides football to finally get a football championship. The conference’s only undisputed football national champion since the Nixon administration was USC in 2004.
Win or lose, this was goodbye to the Pac-12, a dumbfoundingly beautiful conference that’s uniqueness was beloved by so many. It sort of feels like a group of high school friends going their separate ways after they graduate. Greener pastures laid ahead (conference realignment/college), and everyone is set to go their separate ways, as a lengthy friendship is set to decrease in strength as each welcomes new friends into their lives.
So, as Oprah Winfrey said at the end of her last show, “I won’t say goodbye. I’ll say…until we meet again.”
Loser: Michael Penix Jr.
Big stages make good performances look great and bad performances look worse. In Michael Penix’s case, he experienced both in the CFP.
The semifinal game against Texas saw the bright side of Penix. He was handling pressure beautifully and delivered a handful of frozen ropes into air-tight windows. All of the pluses were showing; calm pocket presence, elite arm strength, stupendous accuracy outside of the hashes.
The final saw the minuses of Penix rear their ugly head. Michigan’s diverse defensive looks put Penix and the rest of UW’s offense in a slight tizzy (UM DC Jesse Minter was in his bag). The one sack recorded by UM isn’t telling of how often they got into Penix’s grill. He was under duress for most of the night, and combined with sticky coverage, UW was out of rhythm offensively for most of the night.
Penix struggled navigating unclean pockets, and it cost him most on the first play of the second half. His willingness to stand tall in the pocket instead of immediately aborting when even the slightest of pressure presents itself is a double-edged sword. Despite Mason Smith driving Parker Brailsford right towards Penix, he stands his ground. As he tries to throw the ball away, Smith pushes Brailsford into Penix, which alters the throw. The wobbly pass lands right in the hands of Will Johnson despite Tybo Rodgers trying his best to break up the pass. In this situation, the best option would’ve probably been to abort the pocket.
Or this play, for example. Penix has tight end Jack Westover open for what could’ve been a chunk gain into UM’s red zone. But the threat of Kenneth Grant barreling into Penix causes him to rush, and the result is an overthrow.
Finally, here’s another instance of pressure forcing a Penix mistake. He often seems to pre-determine where he’s throwing the ball, and it might’ve cost UW a touchdown here.
One thing that changed from the semis to the final was the caliber of the opposing secondary. As seen last Monday, Texas’ secondary was weak, and their coverages were both bland and predictable. Michigan had one of the strongest units in the nation, and their coverages were the complete opposite of predictable and bland.
To be fair to Penix, there was a lot working against him. He didn’t have a strong rushing attack to lean on, as an injured Dillon Johnson couldn’t find many gaps in the seventh-ranked rushing defense in the nation. UW’s offensive line was getting worked by a stout UM front seven; they also committed five penalties, one of which was a hold that negated a 32-yard completion to Odunze early in the fourth quarter with the Huskies still down just seven. His outstanding performance against Texas also might’ve had people setting unreasonably high expectations for themselves against Michigan, especially because it was a lot of people’s first time seeing a full Washington game this season.
Plus, not all of his incompletions were his fault, and the most impactful one came early in the first half. Odunze sliced through Michigan’s zone defense, and Penix had him wide open for what could’ve been a touchdown. Unfortunately, Odunze’s hips were facing the middle of the field, and Penix threw a laser towards his back shoulder instead. This required Odunze to execute a split-second hip flip, which he couldn’t pull off in time, and the pass fell incomplete. While Penix said after the game “it’s on me”, Odunze took the blame as well.
“That was my fault, that was my fault,” he said. “I should have broke out on that play. Selfishly, I had so much open space that I kind of had a mental lapse and ran straight up the field because I saw so much open space there. But the route design should have had me breaking out on that particular play so that was my fault. I should have been right where he put it.”
However, it was mostly a struggle for Penix, and it certainly didn’t help his draft stock. Right now, Penix is a projected first round pick. The leap hemade since the beginning of this season has skyrocketed his stock, and considering how much he had working against him, I’m not sure how much Monday’s game will actually go against him come April. But most of Penix’s main weaknesses were revealed, which was suboptimal under the brightest of lights.
Winner: New blood
I briefly mentioned this in my column about the CFP semifinals, but I’ll say it again, mostly because I’m a sucker for parity (last year’s men’s hoops Final Four with Miami, Florida Atlantic and San Diego State? Hell yeah!). Here’s a list of the last time a national championship featured…
None of Alabama, Clemson, Georgia or Ohio State: 2013 (Auburn-Florida State)
No SEC teams: 2014 (Ohio State-Oregon)
Two first-time title game participants: 2010 (Oregon-Auburn)
Two teams without red or orange as their primary colors: Never since the BCS era (1998)
It was also refreshing from a recruiting perspective. I already talked about Washington being far from the top of recruiting/talent rankings, but so was Michigan. They ranked 14th in 247Sports’ Team Talent Composite, well below all the other CFP champions, and they had only two players who were five-star recruits coming out of high school.
This represents a new era of college football, and everyone should be encouraged by it. No longer do you have to be one of a few teams that acquire most of the high school talent; in fact, that might not even be a trend among top recruits anymore. The top 20 recruits in the 2024 recruiting class are going to 16 different schools. With NIL giving several schools new recruiting weaponry and the transfer portal essentially becoming free agency with its recently lessened obstacles, talent has a chance to be as evenly dispersed as ever. As a big fan of parity/balance/sharing the wealth (no, I’m not a communist), I’m very excited for what the future has in store.
Winner: Dogs
I love dogs, as do many others. The national championship game saw two of them take the spotlight. One was Dubs, a husky who serves as Washington’s mascot. The other was Ben, one of Kirk Herbstreit’s four (!) golden retrievers that has captured the hearts of sports fans ever since he started traveling with Herbstreit (date).
Like, look at this. C’mon. Even if you don’t like dogs that much, look how happy they are!
Winner: Football fans
While the title game ended up being not very close, the instant classic semifinal games gave us so much to talk about heading into Monday. And guess what? We’ll be doing this for two more rounds for years to come, as the CFP is set to expand to 12 teams next season. For reference, here’s what a 12-team playoff would’ve looked like in 2023:
(9) Missouri/(8) Oregon winner at (1) Michigan
(12) Liberty/(5) Florida State winner at (4) Alabama
(11) Ole Miss/(6) Georgia winner at (3) Texas
(10) Penn State/(7) Ohio State winner at (2) Washington
Doesn’t that look awesome?! It’s because it is! So many elite and entertaining teams get to play for a national championship, with the first round of games being hosted by the higher seed. Could you imagine Penn State-Ohio State Part 2 in Columbus? How about a potential future SEC preview with Georgia-Texas in the quarterfinals? The caliber of teams and the unprecedented stakes make me incredibly excited for 2025.