Michigan Is College Football’s Heel — and Could Be Its Champion

The Michigan Wolverines will meet the Washington Huskies on Monday night in search of Michigan’s first national championship since 1997. It is a return to the summit of college football after a long spell of uninspired play dating back to 2007.Head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Wolverines has returned the storied program to prominence, a renaissance highlighted by three straight appearances in the College Football Playoff and now a berth in its championship game. Yet, the Wolverines are a hard team to root for. The possibility of a title comes during a year when Mr. Harbaugh was suspended twice for a total of six games and the Big Ten Conference called out the program for unsportsmanlike conduct amid a cheating scandal. Meanwhile, Michigan is being investigated for alleged recruiting violations during the pandemic.Mr. Harbaugh, who was hired in 2015 after the Wolverines lost at least five games in six of the previous seven years, prefers to ignore the controversies surrounding his program. “I don’t know if you want to live in rumorville or speculation,” Mr. Harbaugh told reporters during a conference call last week. “We just don’t really have any room to be doing that at this point. That’s done elsewhere.”The Big Ten suspended Mr. Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season for violating its policies by conducting “an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition,” according to a conference release. The punishment is a result of an alleged sign-stealing scandal in which a former Michigan staffer purchased tickets to more than 30 games over three years to digitally record future Wolverine opponents signaling their plays. Mr. Harbaugh denied playing any role in illegally stealing signs but accepted the suspension, missing the contest against arch rival Ohio State in the process.Mr. Harbaugh also missed three games in September as part of a self-imposed sanction by Michigan in response to an NCAA investigation into recruiting visits held in violation of rules set during the pandemic. Overall, Mr. Harbaugh missed nearly half the season for violating rules.Winners, though, often get a pass. The New England Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick endured the Spygate scandal in 2007, when they were caught videotaping opposing coaches’ signals during games. And the Houston Astros didn’t give back their World Series trophy after being disciplined for using a video camera system to steal signs from opposing teams in 2017 and 2018.Beating Washington and winning the national championship could prove to be a similar tonic. Both the Huskies and the Wolverines enter tonight’s game with identical 14-0 records. Washington beat Texas, 37-31, in the semifinal at the Sugar Bowl, while Michigan edged Alabama, 27-20, in overtime at the Rose Bowl.The Huskies feature a high-powered offense led by quarterback Michael Pennix Jr., who has passed for 4,218 yards and 33 touchdowns against only nine interceptions. Washington averages an impressive 37.7 points and 469.1 yards per game. Mr. Pennix is coming off a sensational game against Texas, when he completed 29 of 39 passes for 430 yards, two touchdowns, and no turnovers.Michigan is powered by a swarming defense and a punishing ground attack led by running back Blake Corum, who has rushed for 1,028 yards and 24 touchdowns. The senior, who holds the school record with 56 rushing touchdowns, provided the winning score against Alabama with a 17-yard TD run in overtime.The corresponding strengths of the two clubs create an intriguing matchup. Washington’s offense will search for ways to move the ball against a Michigan defense that allows just 9.5 points per game, and Michigan must play ball control behind its running game if it hopes to keep pace on the scoreboard.“At the beginning of the season, the first thing I said was I wanted to win a national championship and we have the opportunity to do that,” Mr. Pennix says. “We know the talent and the team that we have. We’ve just got to go out there and show it.”Michigan uses the adversity it has faced this season as motivation and sees a potential national championship as proof of its resiliency. “It would mean everything,” Michigan’s quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, said at Houston, “just because it means everything to win the national championship with all the adversity we overcame.” Would that achievement, though, be accompanied by an exclamation point or an asterisk?

Michigan Is College Football’s Heel — and Could Be Its Champion

Michigan Is College Football’s Heel — and Could Be Its Champion

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