Wolverines, Huskies meet in Houston for the national championship

Jan. 5—HOUSTON — After a rigorous football season, a champion will be crowned on Monday evening ending the 2023 college football season.

The No. 1 ranked Michigan squad will look for its first national championship since 1997. This will be the Wolverines' first trip to the College Football Playoff (CFP) Championship game.

To get there, Michigan held off No. 4 Alabama in overtime at the world-famous Rose Bowl. The game ended with a defensive stand by the Wolverines, leaving Alabama on the 2-yard line as blue and yellow confetti poured down.

Michigan has done that a lot later in the season as they have won three of their last four games by one score — the outlier being the Big Ten Championship against Iowa.

But there is one thing standing in the way of hosting the national championship trophy and that is the Heisman runner-up Micheal Penix Jr. — and the rest of the Washington team.

Penix Jr. has been lights out in his senior final campaign for the Huskies and is coming off a 430-yard performance against No. 3 Texas in the Sugar Bowl. Penix led the nation in passing yards this season with 4,648 yards in 14 games.

As he broke out this year, he has developed more since the last time he faced Michigan when he was the quarterback at Indiana.

"My impressions of him when he played at Indiana were the same. Big-time arm talent, tremendous presence in the pocket, sees the field really well. He is so polished," Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said. "Watching him and his accuracy, his decision-making, timing, he has just continued to have this tremendous presence of going through progression, feels pressure, and will drop it off to a check-down. Yeah, it's at an elite level."

Against the Longhorn defense, Penix had nine plays for over 15 yards through the air with the longest being a 77-yard dime to Ja'Lynn Polk to set up the Huskies' first touchdown. The defensive front of the Longhorns never applied a hit to Penix for a loss.

But Michigan brings in the number one defense to the game, the best Washington has seen — outside of the playoff — when they played Utah on Nov. 11. The Huskies took the Utes for 457 total yards and 35 points.

The Wolverine secondary is one though that might give Penix fits.

Michigan enters the game as the No. 2 team in the nation passing yards per game with 150.

Washington averages 350 yards per game.

With Mike Sainristil leading the defense with five interceptions and two forced fumbles, Penix, wideout Rome Odunze and Polk will have their hands full, especially if running back Dillon Johnson is unable to go at full speed.

On the flip side, Washington's defense has to face J.J. McCarthy, who has a lot of experience and only one loss in his time as the Wolverines starting QB. McCarthy was named the starter in Week 2 of the 2022 season he went 22-1 — the lone loss being to TCU in the 2022 CFP Fiesta Bowl.

McCarthy has been on a tear this season, too. He boasts a 73.25 completion percentage and averaged 203.6 yards per game. While he was one of the best QBs in college football, the junior finished 10th in the Heisman voting with one first-place vote.

"I've always been someone who chases purpose, not fame. I could care less what the media says about me or the light they put me in. All I really care about is winning football games," McCarthy said. "We had numerous chances of making sure that game didn't come down to the wire as it did, and I'm excited to get in the film room today and look at that and correct our mistakes and learn from all the mistakes we made. But at the end of the day, it's about winning football games no matter what it takes, and I could care less what comes of it, what other people think about me or what they deal me amongst the other quarterbacks in this class right now. All I care about is winning games."

One of his best assets is running back Blake Corum in the backfield which helps open the offense up.

Corum has 1,111 net yards on 237 rushing attempts, he also leads the nation with 26 touchdowns. With an offense that can win football games and a defense that holds teams to 10.21 points per game, Michigan is in a good spot.

Michigan's defense is coming off the need to contain a quarterback in Alabama's Jalen Milroe and their defensive front. The defensive line for the Wolverines has combined for 38 sacks and 83 tackles for loss.

Senior EDGE rusher Jaylen Harrell leads the team with 7.5 sacks and 10 TFLs. His partner Mason Graham has 3 sacks and 7.5 TFLs. The duo helped hold Alabama to 288 yards and Milroe to 116 passing yards.

"I think going into this game with the same mindset. He can still make plays with his feet, extend plays he's a great player on a high-powered offense," Graham said. "We still have to contain the quarterback as best we can and try not to let them or allow them to extend plays because that's kind of when explosive plays happen."

Both teams will square off in the national championship on Monday, Jan. 8. Kickoff between No. 1 Michigan and No. 2 Washington is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at NRG Stadium in Houston. The game will be aired on ESPN.