Michigan didn't flinch in emotional defeat of Alabama and is now one win from national title

PASADENA, Calif. — What does it feel like to pass the test an entire nation expected you to fail? 

Maybe it’s JJ McCarthy breaking away from a postgame interview to sprint across the field for a rose that he stuck between his teeth, closed his eyes and threw his head back toward the black California sky. 

Maybe it’s Blake Corum transcending the emotional exhaustion of the most tense football game he’s ever played, spinning and churning until he had pulled every Alabama defender with a shot at tackling him into the end zone. 

Maybe it’s the families of Michigan coaches shaking with adrenaline and embracing each other on the field of a 101-year old stadium that had been the scene of more than few Wolverine heartbreaks, but will now always be remembered for what happened here Monday night. 

Michigan 27, Alabama 20.

In a game Michigan had every right to lose, on a night when it was one play from another crushing College Football Playoff memory, against an opponent steeped in swagger and overflowing with talent, the Wolverines did exactly what Jim Harbaugh said they’d do. 

Say it again, say it loud and say it forever: This was, indeed, the team. 

“Glorious,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “That was glorious.”

There’s one game left to play, one game remaining for Michigan to fulfill the promise of a national championship that it has been missing for decades, but the Wolverines won something nearly as important Monday night. 

After all the question marks that have surrounded Michigan this season from a sign-stealing scandal to the lack of clarity about Harbaugh’s future in Ann Arbor to the soft schedule that could have left the Wolverines unprepared for an opponent like Alabama, there’s no more doubting what this team is made of.

“Alabama probably thought it was over for us,” Corum said. 

It could have been, maybe even should have been. The game Michigan controlled for 30 minutes had slipped away. Its offense had been stopped cold time and again: 20 plays for 52 yards in the second half. Its special teams had a been a disaster. Its defense looked like it was wearing down. 

With 3 minutes and 24 seconds left in the Rose Bowl, trailing 20-13, three years of building to this season and this opportunity was coming down to a fourth-and-2.

“I was calm,” Harbaugh said. “I just felt like there's nothing that we couldn't overcome inside of this stadium today.”

They overcame Alabama, overcame the SEC, overcame all the narratives born of playoff failures past and eventually overcame themselves. In the end, Michigan was tougher than anyone but themselves knew. And when it mattered most, they weren't just better than Alabama — they were the best version of themselves. 

“We always talked about proving ourselves,” defensive lineman Mason Graham said. “We're not trying to prove anyone else wrong, you know? All we have is each other, everyone in this program, everyone here right now. We proved ourselves right.”

It’s what Michigan has been doing all season, laying waste to the Big Ten through all the noise and controversy. But when it comes down to one drive, against the greatest college football dynasty of the modern era and the greatest coach of all time, it’s either a storybook ending or a tale of woe that will be passed down for generations. 

And Michigan wrote the only ending it would accept. The fourth down play, a simple swing pass to Corum into a wide open area of the field, was like an emergency room doctor putting defibrillator pads on an entire team’s chest. Michigan got a shock to the heart and found out that its destiny was inside. 

From that moment until the end, when the Wolverines' defense stoned Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe’s run up the gut on the final play of overtime, it was like years of frustration had morphed into a few minutes of domination. After sputtering for nearly an entire second half, Michigan finished the game gaining scoring two touchdowns in 10 plays. Just in the nick of time.

“Sometimes all it takes is one play to get the team going again,” Corum said. “It’s 60 minutes, but it’s a long game.”

It was more than 60 minutes, actually. And the party is going to go on for a lot longer, undoubtedly all the way back to Ann Arbor and beyond. It should: Given the opponent, the venue and the stakes, this was almost certainly the biggest win in more than the lifetime of any living Michigan fan — and that includes the split national title they shared in 1997.

“The SEC has been the king of college football for, I don’t know, maybe forever,” Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said. “You wanted to take down one of the best and a team that’s been up there every year. So, yeah, you definitely feel like that’s step one.”

A huge step, indeed. With a big one still to go. 

The challenge for Michigan now will be turning around in less than a week to prepare for the national championship game in Houston against a team that's just as good or better than what it faced Monday. Michigan’s celebration on the Rose Bowl victory stage was as profound and emotional as any team that has ever won a College Football Playoff semifinal. And that wasn’t just about what happened against Alabama. 

“Never flinching,” linebacker Michael Barrett said. “Never flinching.”

Michigan had flinched last year in this very same moment against. It hadn’t even bothered to show up two years ago against Georgia. Those losses had forged Michigan in fire, and controversies that had engulfed the program — self-inflicted as they might have been — bonded them in steel.

“It's almost been an unfair advantage, all the things that the team has gone through,” Harbaugh said. “We don't care anymore. Don't care what people say. Don't care about anything that comes up.”

And when it came time to show it to the world Monday, they passed the test. If they can do it one more time, they’ll forever be able to call themselves champions.