What they're saying about Michigan football's CFP National Championship win

The Michigan Wolverines are national champions after a 34-13 win over Washington in the CFP title game in Houston on Monday night and now stand alone atop college football’s pedestal. The team is 15-0 for the first time in program history and closed out the final narrative mark against the program in the victory.

Here’s a sampling of some of the reactions from across college football coming off of the win.

Ryan Van Bergen, The Wolverine postgame

Podcast: Reacting and celebrating a national championship victory
“They pulled it off. They did it. They cemented the legacy that everyone who’s ever worn the winged helmet hopes to cement, and they did it in a way that was undeniable. They took all comers, which I heard Jim Harbaugh say at the end of the game, and not only did they take all 11 that decided to cross the sideline and strap it up against these guys, but the distractions, the different things that have happened throughout this season that could have deterred or derailed a lesser team.

“But the leadership, the character, the toughness, the grit, it’s the things that this team have, I mean, this is the best football team in all 144 years of Michigan football. I think that is undeniable as well. So to have been a part of it, to have worn the same helmet, it’s an honor and a privilege to watch these guys just create that legacy and cement themselves as national champions.”

Chris Balas, The Wolverine

Michigan 34, Washington 13, Notes, quotes, and observations — No more doubt
In the press box, we debated what Michigan should do if the Wolverines won the coin toss — take the ball and make a statement or defer and take their chances with the potent Huskies offense. Washington made the decision easy for them when they won the toss and deferred, giving U-M the ball first with a chance to make a statement of their own. 

And did they ever — one we’d really expected to see much of the year, but that really didn’t show up until the final game. The Wolverines’ offensive line opened huge holes with a duo scheme, creating great vertical push and allowing the running backs to read the linebackers and react. It was exactly what maligned Michigan running back Donovan Edwards needed to get his mojo back. He got to show his speed on touchdown runs of 41 and 46 yards that set the tone for the game, part of a first quarter offensive explosion that — even though we didn’t know it at the time — was enough on its own to win. 

That it was Blake Corum who won MVP honors and not Edwards shows just how dominant the Wolverines were, minus a somewhat typical mid-game lull. The senior ran for 134 yards and 2 touchdowns on 21 carries — “Business is finished!” he said from the championship podium after noting unfinished business was the reason he returned — as part of a bullying on both sides of the ball. 

Paul Finebaum, ESPN

“I think it was one of the most remarkable and difficult routes to a national championship I have ever seen,” Paul Finebaum said. “Sometimes you’re preordained. And I realize Michigan was a preseason top 2 or 3 pick, but the road they took is unlike any we have ever seen.

“I say, ‘congratulations.’ And Greeny, I was cheering for him last night. I can’t explain it, I’m sure it’s some weird thing from back when I was a baby or something. But I don’t know if I’ve ever been more wrong about anything in my entire life. I didn’t think the guy would ever beat Ohio State, I said it on your show a couple of years ago, if I live to be 150, and I’m getting close. But the point being, this is truly remarkable. And I don’t want to be wrong about something, Greeny, you never want to be wrong, but if you’re going to be epically wrong, at of this constellation, out of this universe wrong, I’ll take it.

“And I think Jim Harbaugh has silenced all those who doubted him in the early days. I’m not talking about what happened this year, that’s a whole different story. But in the end, he has proven everyone wrong.”

Bill Connelly, ESPN

College Football Playoff championship: Washington-Michigan takeaways
Harbaugh had taken up coaching after an excellent run as a quarterback. He threw for 5,214 yards and 31 touchdowns for Bo Schembechler’s Michigan, going 23-3-1 in 1985-86 and finishing third in the 1986 Heisman voting. The Chicago Bears picked him 26th in the 1987 NFL draft, and he threw for 26,288 career yards, started 140 games and eventually led the Indianapolis Colts to the 1995 AFC Championship Game. But like his father, Jack, and brother, John, he was destined to make his biggest mark as a coach.

Harbaugh quickly progressed from FCS head coach to Super Bowl coach to FBS head coach. In his early days back at U-M, he made waves with kicker sleepovers, Judge Judy love, khakis love, occasional shirtlessness and wins. (And illegal cheeseburgers for which he was eventually suspended.) Michigan had gone just 12-13 under Brady Hoke in 2013-14 but won 10 games in each of Harbaugh’s first two years in charge. In 2016, the Wolverines came within a millimeter of the Big Ten title and a potential CFP bid.

Then came the roller coaster. Harbaugh couldn’t get the quarterback play right, and his Wolverines slipped first to an average of 9.0 wins from 2017 to ’19, then to 2-4 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He had to renegotiate his contract and hire new assistants to keep his job, and in the search for new edges, he might have given a bit too much freedom (and not enough attention) to a rogue scout. Regardless, in 2021, Michigan broke through for its first win over Ohio State since 2011, first Big Ten title since 2003 and first CFP bid ever. After a demoralizing loss to Georgia in the playoff, the Wolverines responded by improving both their record and their team, winning 13 straight games in 2022 before falling to TCU in a CFP upset.

In 2023, they took no prisoners. Despite two different suspensions for Harbaugh at the beginning and end of the season, the Wolverines mauled a series of overmatched opponents. Despite Harbaugh’s absence, they beat Penn State and Ohio State in November. And with Harbaugh back on the sideline in the postseason, the Wolverines rode their bully ball offense and a ferocious defensive performance to a national title.

Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports

With sun shining on Michigan again, Jim Harbaugh must find his motivation: potential dynasty or Super Bowl?
There was a not-so-subtle question lingering Monday night as Jim Harbaugh walked off the NRG Stadium field after winning the College Football Playoff National Championship. The ultimate Michigan Man had become a maize & blue legend beating Washington 34-13 for Michigan‘s first national title since 1997.

Now what?

That query will continue hanging in the air longer than some of Michael Penix Jr.’s misaimed passes Monday night. In continuing not to provide an answer in the aftermath of the Wolverines’ dominant victory over the Huskies, Harbaugh was as stalwart as his defense that held down the nation’s No. 1 passing attack.

“I just want to enjoy this,” Harbaugh told the media. “I hope you give me that. Can a guy have that? Does it always have to be, ‘What’s next? What’s the future?'”

It does when a now-national championship coach is stiff-arming not only his employers but his program and its adoring fans. They deserve to know sooner than later because Harbaugh is just that damn good. Perhaps too good for Michigan at this point.

“He certainly has fulfilled [his destiny],” Michigan president Santa Ono said. “I hope he stays. I’m going to do everything I can to encourage him to stay, but if he doesn’t, the Michigan tradition will move on.”

Add college football to that list of entities hanging on Harbaugh’s decision. With Harbaugh donning his block “M” cap, Michigan threatens to become a dynasty. Without him, well, what is that saying about never being the guy to follow the guy? The next Michigan coach — suspected to be offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore if there is an opening — has a big pair of khakis to fill.

Shehan Jeyarajah, CBS Sports

Michigan’s unique national championship run forged by adversity, past College Football Playoff failures
One year ago, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy stood on the sideline of the Fiesta Bowl watching purple confetti fall on State Farm Stadium in Arizona after TCU stole a bid to the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship.

“We’ll be back,” McCarthy said in the postgame press conference. “I promise that.” And then he walked out.

It was the first loss of McCarthy’s career at Michigan and one that sat with the team. From the first team meeting in January after losing the Fiesta Bowl, Michigan was different. The workouts were more intense. The bond was stronger. A number of players who could have opted for the NFL Draft returned for another year of eligibility in search of the program’s first national championship in more than 25 years.

Three-hundred seventy-three days later, No. 1 Michigan is a national champion for the first time in the BCS or College Football Playoff era after a 34-13 win over No. 2 Washington.

…

Before the Penn State game, players met and decided enough was enough. The program was locked in. No matter who led the program as interim, be it offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore or running backs coach Mike Hart (or even safeties coach Jay Harbaugh), there was only one constant: excellence. The Wolverines were the only team in college football to win every game on their schedule and beat four of the top 10 teams in the final CFP Rankings to get there. 

Early in the fourth quarter of the College Football Playoff National Championship, Michigan faced its season-defining moment. The Wolverines jumped out to an early lead, but it dissipated. Washington pulled to within one score when Michigan got the ball back with 9:15 remaining in the game. 

From that moment, Michigan pounced like a leopard in one of the nature documentaries that Harbaugh often shows his teams before big games. McCarthy found tight end Colston Loveland for a 41-yard catch-and-run, setting up a school record 26th touchdown run in one season for Blake Corum. On the next drive, senior defensive back Mike Sainristil nabbed an errant pass from Michael Penix Jr. and returned it 81 yards deep into the red zone, a play that will be on loop for the next 100 years in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Two plays later, Corum got touchdown No. 27 and the rout was on.

“We’ve played in a lot of big games, played in a lot of close games,” Loveland said. “We’ve got a lot of experience in close games. We’ve got a lot of older guys who have been there. They know how everything works and what it takes to win.”

Pat Forde, Sports Illustrated

Amid Scandal and Scrutiny, Jim Harbaugh Leads Michigan Back to the Mountaintop
Jim Harbaugh emerged from the winning locker room with a Diet Coke in his right hand and joy in his heart. The Michigan Wolverines football coach extended his left hand for a series of middle-aged-man high fives to various friends of the program who were loitering in the hallway at NRG Stadium, then disappeared behind a door for the postgame interview after beating the Washington Huskies 34–13 for the College Football Playoff championship.

Harbaugh’s comments were his usual kaleidoscope of thoughts—all over the place, analogies and bromides colliding with each other, but consistently effusive in praise of his undefeated team.

He compared one J.J. McCarthy pass to “flicking the old booger off your finger.” He cited the teamwork of bees: “What’s good for the bee is good for the hive, what’s good for the hive is good for the bee.” He said he “can now sit at the big person’s table” in his family with father Jack, who won an FCS national title at Western Kentucky in 2002, and brother John, who beat Jim to win Super Bowl XLVII with the Baltimore Ravens. He dubiously declared, “We know we’re innocent” regarding the NCAA investigations hovering over his program, which led to two separate suspensions of Harbaugh during the season.

Harbaugh listened to his players answer questions—running back Blake Corum, defensive back Will Johnson and quarterback McCarthy—occasionally chiming in his own comments. Then he got up and tried to leave with the players but was asked to remain seated for questions directed solely at him.

After resolutely avoiding making comments about his uncertain future for weeks, there is no more avoiding it. That doesn’t mean he answered the questions head-on, but whether Jim Harbaugh is going to coach at Michigan or coach in the NFL in 2024 is now a present-tense topic, not something down the road.