By CJ Carlson
The Michigan Wolverines are College Football Champions after their 34-13 victory over the Washington Huskies. Their defense showed up big time, and their run game carried their offense all the way home to get head coach Jim Harbaugh the huge victory.
Quarterback J.J. McCarthy didn’t exactly impress the scouts with his performance, completing 10 of his 18 total passes for 140 yards without a touchdown or interception. However, he quite literally didn’t need to do anything else. Running back Blake Corum took 21 carries and turned them into 134 yards and two touchdowns. Fellow backfield mate Donovan Edwards took six carries and had 104 rushing yards with two more touchdowns. This isn’t even counting Alex Orji’s 15 yards, or McCarthy’s 31, or even Kalel Mullings 21 yards. The Wolverines’ run game was just that dominant, and it’s why they are champions.
Michigan Wolverines Got A Huge Boost From Their Defense
The defense was truly impressive though, and they really stifled Washington’s offense completely. Michael Penix fell back down to Earth, completing just 52 percent of his passes for 255 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions. The run game didn’t help out either, with the backfield combining for 19 carries and turning them into 47 yards. This team just didn’t put it together at all in the second half, scoring only three points in that span. The first half saw the momentum shift a small bit with a Penix passing touchdown to cut the lead down to seven. Unfortunately, nothing really got closer than that.
For some of these players, they have the NFL draft to look forward to. For others, they’ll continue to run it back. There’s no question, both of these rosters will look entirely different moving forward. We’re likely to see Penix and star receiver Rome Odunze head to the NFL for Washington. We’ll see Michigan lose J.J. McCarthy, Blake Corum, and possibly Jim Harbaugh. Before we get into all of that talk, let’s take a moment to congratulate the Wolverines on winning their first college football championship in their history.
