The Michigan Wolverines entered their 144th campaign with everything going its way. Two-time defending Big Ten football champs, two convincing victories over the once-dominant Buckeyes of Ohio State, two straight berths in the College Football Playoff, over 80% of its production returning from 2022, and a shiny new #2 ranking to start the season. It's like everything was going their way. What kind of motivation is that?
One adversity special coming up. And please, if it's not too late, make it a cheeseburger.
More specifically, the cheeseburger coach Jim Harbaugh bought a young recruit in 2020, in violation of the NCAA's COVID-era protocols. One of a handful of rules violations, mostly minor yet enough to warrant the attention of the NCAA Infractions Committee. Harbaugh, who had negotiated a four-game suspension with the NCAA a month ago, had his penalty rescinded so the committee could keep the investigation open till the off-season.
So in a pro-active move last week, the university reinstated the suspension for Harbaugh—well, three games of it, plus one for offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. Just what the doctor ordered. You want fries with that, doc?
"Free Harbaugh" shirts popped up everywhere. Quarterback JJ McCarthy wore one during meetings with the press. Harbaugh and Moore were still able to coach during the week, just not on the day of the game. But that didn't matter. It was Michigan vs Everybody all over again. The team wouldn't have it any other way.
So the Wolverines took the field, self-imposed barrier in place, and before the first play of their second offensive possession, they acknowledged their fallen coach (fallen as in, Harbaugh "fallen" into a leather couch at Moore's house to watch the game on Peacock). The team set up in the "I"-est of all "I"-formations, with all 11 players lined up behind each other. A previously-used Harbaugh gimmick. Except this time, the players raised their left arms and pointed four fingerst toward the sky in deference to their coach, the former #4 who as quarterback led the Wolverines to a B1G championship of his own in 1986.
Then, they proceeded to enforce their will against an outgunned opponent.
Let's be clear, however. The East Carolina Pirates were hardly the cupcake everyone wanted you to believe. An 8-win team from the American Athletic Conference (the only non-Power 5 conference to land a team in the CFP), ECU started off 2022 by taking the nation's #13 team (North Carolina State) to the final minute on the road, scoring the would-be tying TD before going for two and the win and falling short. They ended 2022 by bludgeoning the season's Cinderella team, Coastal Carolina, 53-29, in the Birmingham Bowl. And that AAC team from Cincinnati who made it to the CFP in 2021? ECU lost to them on a late field goal, 27-25.
But on this sunny and steamy afternoon, they were facing Michigan, a team with a friendly-fire-sized chip on its shoulder. An early interception by lockdown corner Mike Sainristill started the Wolverines' first scoring drive, which triggered a string of five straight scoring possessions. Roman Wilson, who surrendered his #14 jersey for the privilege of wearing the coveted "1", did Anthony Carter's old number justice by catching three of the four touchdowns during that stretch, on a 6-for-78-yard day.
East Carolina coach Mike Houston followed the lead of Ohio State DC Jim Knowles last November and committed his defense to stopping the run. A worthy approach, given the preseason hype generated by the nation's best backfield duo, Blake Corum (who, despite a season-ending knee injury, still finished 7th in Heisman voting) and Donovan Edwards, who will forever be known for his two untouched, field-length touchdown runs that destroyed Knowles' gameplan and dismantled the Buckeyes. But as Michigan did in Columbus last Thanksgiving, they did again on Saturday. McCarthy sliced his way through the formidable Pirate defense, completing 26 of 30 passes for 280 yards and the three TD passes to Wilson.
Even still, Corum managed 7.3 yards per run. He only carried the rock a Harbaugh-twitching 10 times in a game where the offense was split precisely in half—31 rushing plays, 31 passing plays. The 50/50 offense running backs coach Mike Hart says the team strives to achieve. Yet somehow, that jam-it-down-your-throat-and-you-can't-stop-it authority was missing. And everyone in the building (and two coaches watching at home) knew it. But that'll have to wait for the next opponent.
On this day, Michigan rolled up over 400 yards of passs-happy offense, holding the Pirates to 126 until their final two meaningless drives of the day. In fact, the game should have been a shutout were it not for coach Houston trotting out his field goal unit with 0:01 to play in the game for a 33-yarder.
Actually, the rightful score of this game should have been 38-0 (the Vegas line), were it not for the missed PAT after McCarthy's third TD by kicker James Turner—a Saline native who transferred from Louisville—and an ECU fourth-quarter, goal-line stand punctuated by McCarthy's fumble at the Pirates' 1-yard line on fourth down (I'd say uncharacteristic were it not a carbon copy of the play that Michigan fumbled the ball away at the TCU 1 the last time this team took the field).
But 30-3 they'll take. An injury-free effort, with defensive coordinator Jessee Minter and of all people, Harbaugh's father Jack (who coached under Bo in the 1970s) covering for the missing offensive play-callers. A well-oiled-machine of a team on autopilot, cruising along on cruise control and able to counter any strategy drawn up against it.
After the game, Harbaugh said he and Moore were admittedly impressed by his team's performance as they ate sandwiches and watched from the paradise of Moore's living room. Given their predicament, on a week that saw the passing of the immortal Jimmy Buffet, something tells me cheeseburgers were on the menu.
[words & pics by me]
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