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HOUSTON — 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.
“In order to accomplish things like this, you’ve got to go to those dark places where everything’s not great,” McCarthy said following the win. “Just the response, the urgency after that last game last year, it was different. I knew it. I knew the guys that were coming back. I had a feeling it was going to be where we are right now.”
That resilience was stress tested during a truly one-of-a-kind run. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh was twice suspended for six total games (meaning he coached only 60% of his team’s season) due to NCAA and Big Ten investigations on illegal scouting and disallowed recruiting and coaching doing the COVID-19 dead period. The last time the coach of an AP national championship-winning team appeared in fewer than nine games was 1952 Michigan State, of all programs. The…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/michigans-unique-national-championship-run-forged-by-adversity-past-college-football-playoff-failures/
Author : Shehan Jeyarajah
Publish date : 2024-01-09 07:26:49
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