Best and worst from Michigan's Big Ten championship game win over Iowa

INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan Wolverines football dismembered Iowa, 26-0, in the Big Ten championship game to capture its third straight title. Here are the best and worst from the game.

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Worst nightmare come true

Rookie Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti used the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy to suspend Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season while the Wolverines are being investigated by the NCAA for potential scouting violations.

Petitti was criticized for the decision, considering there hasn’t been proof that Harbaugh directed or had knowledge of any wrongdoing.

The most juicy scenario for weeks has been Michigan winning the Big Ten and Petitti having to hand Harbaugh the trophy in Indianapolis. That one played out, with the Wolverines winning their 45th Big Ten title, but Harbaugh sent senior guard Zak Zinter, who’d been injured last weekend against Ohio State, to accept the trophy.

Still, Harbaugh and Petitti shared the stage, and Michigan fans let the commissioner have it with boos raining down, before he slunk up the tunnel and out of sight. What a first Big Ten championship game for Petitti.

Most elusive coach

Harbaugh was almost bathed in Gatorade. He would’ve been, if his players could have executed better, or if he didn’t have such quicks in evading them. Must’ve been the cleats.

Jim Harbaugh rising up draft boards due to his ability to escape the pocket and make off-platform throws pic.twitter.com/v4QRWkvQdD

— Clayton Sayfie (@CSayf23) December 3, 2023

Redemption

Last Dec. 2, Michigan senior running back Blake Corum was heading into knee surgery. On that date this year, he was running for 2 touchdowns in his team’s third straight Big Ten championship game appearance and victory.

Corum is now up to a program-record 55 rushing touchdowns, tying Anthony Thomas with a chance to break it in the College Football Playoff, and he has amassed 1,000 rushing yards in back-to-back seasons.

Best magician

Harbaugh often says that Michigan graduate defensive back Mike Sainristil (along with others) “makes the magic happen when you need to make it happen.” He has done that this season over and over again, and that trend continued Saturday night.

Sainristil forced 2 fumbles that led to 10 Michigan points and also jumped a route and nearly picked off a third-down pass. The last time the Wolverines played Iowa in the Big Ten championship (2021), Sainristil was a wide receiver who had 1 reception for 1 yard. Since then, he’s become quite the defensive back — a great one who is climbing up draft boards according to Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh.

This Michigan defense has a great sense of when the team needs a big play, and it’s been able to deliver more times than not this season.

Mad dash but out of gas

Michigan freshman Semaj Morgan had never returned a punt at the college level until the 13th game of the season. His debut was magnificent. He fair caught his first snap back there, before returning the next one 87 yards for what could’ve been a touchdown

Morgan, who’s excelled as a receiver of quick passes, has great spatial awareness and vision. He showed that on his big return. He broke free, and nobody had a good angle on him. But Morgan ran out of gas and was caught by Iowa defensive back Koen Entringer at the 5-yard line.

Morgan’s return was the longest in Big Ten championship game history.

Semaj Morgan nearly housed the punt.

📺: FOX/@CFBONFOX pic.twitter.com/i8NSGqRakd

— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) December 3, 2023

Fitting for the Big Ten

The next time there’s a Big Ten game, UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington will be in the league. The conference will never be the same. Divisions will be gone, too, and the top two teams will meet in the conference championship game.

This was a fitting ending for this era of Big Ten football, Iowa’s drives resulting in: punt, punt, punt, punt, fumble, punt, fumble, turnover on downs, punt, fumble, turnover on downs and turnover on downs. Michigan got in on the action, too, with a season-high 6 punts and settling for 4 field goals.

Cool, calm, collected

Michigan graduate James Turner hasn’t missed a field goal since Sept. 23 against Rutgers.

You read that right.

Turner had a quiet season until drilling 3 field goals against Ohio State and becoming a U-M ‘legend’ according to Harbaugh. Then he made 4 against Iowa, helping the Wolverines get ahead and stay ahead against a team not built to come from behind.

Turner is now 16-of-18 on field goals, with 50-yard makes in each of the last two games.

Biggest disappointment

Michigan’s passing game looked crisp on its first drive and early in the game, with junior J.J. McCarthy starting out 9-of-10 passing. But the signal-caller finished 22-of-30 for 147 yards, averaging only 4.9 yards per attempt.

McCarthy was sacked 4 times, had receivers drop a few passes and got no help from the run game. Adjusting for sack yardage, Michigan averaged 3.5 yards per carry with 106 total yards, but the gains weren’t consistent, and nothing came easy against the stout Iowa defense.

Michigan only scored touchdowns via short fields, starting at the 5- and 6-yard lines, went 3-of-15 on third downs and totaled just 213 yards — the fewest in a game since a 14-13 loss at Iowa in 2016.

Top seed

Michigan will likely be the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. The Maize and Blue haven’t been ranked No. 1 since winning the national championship with a Jan. 1, 1998, victory over Washington State in the Rose Bowl.

Harbaugh and Co. are headed back to the CFP for the third straight season.