The Michigan Wolverines have had an amazing regular season and won the Big Ten Championship following their triumph against Iowa, dominating them 26-0. This leads them to their next game against Alabama on January 1st for the first round of College Playoffs. The Wolverines have one of the best defenses in all of college football. They currently have allowed on average 9.5 points allowed which is first in college football. Blake Corum has also ran for 24 touchdowns this season leading the team. Coming in with a record of 13-0, things have been clicking for this Michigan team.
These Wolverines have battled hardships all season as they were accused of sign stealing and had to play a tough part of their schedule without head coach Jim Harbaugh. Despite this, the team still managed to persevere winning a huge rivalry against the Ohio State Buckeyes. This game is one of the most exciting games of the year and always has lots of trash talk and conflict between the fan bases. The loser was likely to be knocked out of the top four in rankings for playoffs, so there was a lot on the line. This game is always a dogfight and there was nothing less of that this year.
The final four teams left have all had impressive seasons to this point, the teams remaining are Michigan (13-0), Washington(13-0), Texas(12-1), and Alabama(12-1). Washington defeated a tough Oregon team for the second time this season to advance to the college playoffs. Texas completed a tough schedule only losing one game to Oklahoma. Alabama’s only loss this season came against Texas. The next two games should be super close and I believe they will be low-scoring for the most part.
Alabama and Michigan will play at the Rose Bowl in California. Michigan’s defense has been outstanding this year and Alabama’s offense has struggled at times to get things going. I don’t think Michigan’s offense has to do much in this game to get the win. Harbaugh recently said, “The credit they deserve for sticking together. Playing for each other, for being the kind of ball team that they are. I don’t know if that’s going to be fully known, or if it’s capable of being fully known outside of Schembechler Hall here, but to us, when we look at that sign, ‘the team, the team, the team.’ I think of this ‘23 team as ‘the team.’” Harbaugh has confidence his guys can continue to dominate.
Texas and Washington play at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. I think Washington will win this game, after seeing Washington’s offense dominate Oregon’s defense, I think they keep this going into the next game. Washington’s defense was also able to limit Heisman contender Bo Nix. Both sides of the ball played well and I haven’t seen much from this Texas team that impresses me. Assuming Michigan plays against Washington in the National Title, I think Michigan comes away with the win. I truly believe that defense wins games and I don’t think there’s a better college defense than what Michigan has right now.
