What they're saying after Michigan's Rose Bowl win over Alabama
The Michigan Wolverines grabbed a 27-20 overtime win over the Alabama Crimson Tide on Monday afternoon in Pasadena, ending a six-game bowl losing streak and clinching the program’s first appearance in a national title game in the BCS/College Football Playoff era.
There were plenty of opinions from the local and national media. Here are some of the best reactions from around college football.
Ryan Van Bergen, The Wolverine postgame
WATCH: Reactions, analysis of Michigan’s Rose Bowl win, natty showdown with Washington
“I feel like I have six months of my life that I’ll never get back because of just how much stress I feel like I experienced there in the stands. But I mean, what an amazing team, what an amazing story. We didn’t play our best football today. I think we can probably agree that offensively we didn’t play our best. On special teams, everything but a disaster.
“I kept telling my wife, ‘I don’t know how we’re this close. We shouldn’t even be in this game with some of the mishaps that we had. We have a trick play, a flea flicker that takes us out of field goal range and we missed that field goal, we missed an extra point. We have so many things in a game versus Alabama and a game versus one of the best teams in the country where you make these mistakes, you lose the game and everybody knows that. But his team showed tremendous resilience, consistency, grit and heart. That was not a beautiful football game, but the result was absolutely beautiful.
“Not a doubt in my mind, that’s the best game I’ve ever witnessed, the best game I’ve ever been a part of and I couldn’t be more excited for this team and what they were able to persevere through to get this win.”
Chris Balas, The Wolverine
Michigan 27, Alabama 20 (OT): Notes, quotes, and observations — almost perfect
It turns out Michigan didn’t need its ‘A’ game after all to beat the SEC’s best — just a little bit of late magic, including a fourth-down conversion on a game-tying touchdown drive, and a defense that got off the mat after spending too much time on the field in the second half. But they rallied like the offense to secure a 27-20 overtime win over Alabama, saving their best for last in a game of momentum changes.
The result made it feel perfect, even if the football wasn’t. The setting was incredible, with Michigan fans making up probably 60 percent of the crowd on a sunny day in one of college football’s best venues, loud and into it from the get-go. The first half offensive game plan was outstanding, though the Wolverines missed opportunities created by their aggressive defense. A fumbled Semaj Morgan punt led to a Crimson Tide touchdown early when U-M should have had the ball near midfield for their second drive.
The response, though, was critical — a touchdown drive of their own to tie it, 75 yards behind an offensive line that played one of its best halves of the year. Offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore and staff kept the Crimson Tide off balance by breaking tendency, running plays out of formations they hadn’t shown on film all year, and capping it with a short touchdown pass to a wide-open Blake Corum.
The defense, meanwhile, was dominant. Their play created a sense of security when the Wolverines went into the half with a 13-10 lead. On the flip side, many understood Nick Saban and Alabama weren’t going to go quietly. Their second half adjustments stifled Michigan in the Citrus Bowl four years ago when U-M had a similar lead, and they would again Monday. And until the game’s last drive, the Wolverines had managed only 41 total yards — 41 — in the second half.
Bruce Feldman, The Athletic
Michigan responds to its doubters with program-defining win: ‘We did the unthinkable’
Michigan made a profound statement Monday night in the Rose Bowl. Not just with its performance battling back to knock off mighty Alabama from the SEC, but with the emotions that poured out of the Wolverines after their 27-20 overtime victory to advance to the national title game.
Jim Harbaugh, the most polarizing figure in college football, hugged two of his team’s emotional leaders, defensive tackle Kris Jenkins and offensive lineman Trevor Keegan, as TV cameras surrounded them. Harbaugh pounded his fist on each of their pads and excitedly told them: “There is nothing we can’t overcome. We did it! We’re going to overcome anything!”
They did. The Wolverines had been the more physical team in the first half against the Crimson Tide. Their coaches had them ready. They were often one step ahead of Alabama. They sacked star quarterback Jalen Milroe on four of his first six dropbacks. They probably should’ve led 14-3 at halftime; it was 13-10 due to some self-inflicted wounds. To its credit, Alabama adjusted and appeared to take over. But the Wolverines and their fans wouldn’t wilt, making the Rose Bowl feel like it was in Ann Arbor West.
To Michigan, it’s even sweeter how this one played out. Teams in all sports love to embrace people doubting them with an us-against-the-world mentality. This team, though, truly lives it, and there’s nothing fake or manufactured about it.
Austin Meek, The Athletic
Michigan’s cathartic Rose Bowl moment: Wolverines conquer CFP demons by beating Alabama
For every magical finish at the Rose Bowl, there is a team that wants to forget.
Michigan has been that team, haunted by failure and burdened by the past. On the other sideline was Alabama, a program that eats other teams’ dreams for breakfast. As the sun went down Monday night, a familiar pit settled into the stomachs of Michigan fans who could sense where this was all going. Michigan had outplayed Alabama for much of the night, but the Wolverines were watching their national championship dreams slip away. They needed their stars to step up and save them from a lifetime of regret.
Step up they did. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy guided Michigan on a game-saving drive, hitting Roman Wilson for the touchdown that forced overtime. Blake Corum, the running back who has dazzled everywhere but the College Football Playoff, weaved through Alabama’s defense for the go-ahead score. And Michigan’s defense stuffed Jalen Milroe on fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line, releasing a deep well of emotion that was building throughout Michigan’s long, strange journey to Pasadena.
What can anybody say about Michigan now? The Wolverines are 14-0 and heading to Houston to play Washington for the national championship. They just beat Alabama, the most successful program of the CFP era, and rallied in the final minutes of regulation to do it. With a 27-20 victory in the Rose Bowl, the Wolverines conquered their CFP demons and quieted anybody who still believed their success was a product of stolen signs or unfair advantages.
Bill Connelly, ESPN.com
College Football Playoff: Takeaways from Alabama-Michigan, Texas-Washington
Despite all these unforgivable and uncharacteristic mistakes, the Wolverines advanced. Having plowed through a mostly iffy schedule with minimal issues in 2023, they faced their first genuine, must-score-here drive of the season when they got the ball down seven with 4:41 remaining in regulation. But just because they hadn’t been asked to come through in that regard yet didn’t mean they couldn’t when asked. Over the last 23 plays from scrimmage in regulation and overtime (not including a kneel down), they gained 111 yards in 11 plays, and Alabama gained 36 in 12. They converted a fourth-and-2 on a beautiful, quick strike to Blake Corum, who raced upfield and was credited for 27 yards after an illegal block nullified some of his gain. (Another mistake!) Then quarterback J.J. McCarthy took off for 16 yards inside the Alabama 40. When Alabama’s Deontae Lawson got a hand on a McCarthy pass to Roman Wilson — Bama defenders were credited with five deflections on the evening — Wilson leaped to still make the catch anyway, preventing an almost sure interception and then racing around wrong-footed defenders for 29 yards. A play later, Wilson was in the end zone after a short catch and run with 1:34 left.
It was easy to think that the Wolverines might have left Bama too much time to get into field goal range, but after a couple of short passes moved the chains, Bama stalled out. It set up Thaw’s near-disaster, but it forced overtime, where Michigan gained 25 yards in two plays and Bama gained only 23 in six. Corum scored on an intensely physical 17-yard run, and a last-ditch Jalen Milroe effort came up 2 yards short.
This was a sloppy, frazzled game, one that ended up featuring eight fumbles (five from Bama), epic special teams miscues and offenses that went a combined 5-for-24 on third down. But in the end, the more successfully physical team won. For most of the last 15 years, Alabama has been that team seemingly 90-something percent of the time. But the Wolverines made 10 tackles for loss (six sacks) to the Crimson Tide’s one. They averaged 5.9 yards per play to Bama’s 4.4, and with the game on the line, they blocked like crazy, then blew up Bama’s blocking on the final series of the Tide’s season.
Michigan has cleared seemingly impossible hurdles in recent years. The Wolverines turned things around after a dreadful 2020. They ended a miserable, decade-long losing streak to Ohio State. They ended a nearly two-decade-long Big Ten title drought. And after two straight disappointing CFP appearances, they’ve now won their first playoff game. Will they end one more title drought in Houston?
Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports
Jim Harbaugh proves Michigan’s bully ball works taking down biggest of them all in Alabama, Nick Saban
It has taken nine years since he arrived at Michigan, but Monday night was Harbaugh’s proof of concept. It was his crowning Michigan Man achievement — at least for now. In an age of offensive explosion, his version of bully ball has definitely proved it can work.
It largely had already. Michigan is playing its third straight playoff after going 0-2 in its first two appearances. Its point differential alone in 2023 (354 points) was more than 67 teams scored all season. Its defense is threatening to become the first to surrender fewer than 10 points per game since Alabama in 2011.
But Harbaugh and Michigan needed to take this next step. Needed it badly, in fact. Michigan needed to prove a philosophy that road-graded the Big Ten could work at the next level. That next level being the conference in which Alabama plays, the SEC.
You might have noticed the Strength Everywhere Conference has won 13 of the last 17 national titles. For the first time since Oregon and Ohio State played in the inaugural 2015 CFP National Championship, the SEC will not at least play in the final game of the season.
Michigan was tougher, stronger, faster. It looked like an SEC team.
Richard Johnson, Sports Illustrated
Michigan Finally Shakes Off Playoff Woes With Scrappy Rose Bowl Win
An hour after the Rose Bowl ended, with nobody in the stands and few people still on the field, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy crouched alone in the end zone to take in what had just happened. When he got up, eyes still wet with tears, he hugged a Michigan employee and headed for the exit. It wasn’t the first time McCarthy had stopped to feel the emotions that come at the end of a College Football Playoff semifinal, but it is the first time he wasn’t processing a searing defeat.
After the Orange Bowl in 2021, he stood solemnly with Andrel Anthony, Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards after Georgia dismantled Michigan. Following the loss to TCU in the Fiesta Bowl last year, McCarthy stood alone, helmet in hand, as purple confetti rained on the team that had just upset his Wolverines. This time, the tears were anything but sad.
“It’s indescribable just because the last two years, being able to watch the opposing team celebrate, it’s just different when I see the maize and blue confetti on the field,” McCarthy said after Michigan’s 27–20 overtime victory over Alabama Monday. “I’m nothing without this head coach [Jim Harbaugh], nothing without my teammates, nothing without that defense. Everything was so amazing. It’s just really, really amazing.”
