Michigan football welcomes CFP matchup with behemoth Alabama ‘I would want no other team’

INDIANAPOLIS — There isn’t much this Michigan football team has yet to achieve — other than everything it’s trying to accomplish over the upcoming 36 days, when the next College Football Playoff champion will be crowned in Houston.

The Wolverines (13-0) are officially the No. 1 overall seed in the CFP. They beat Iowa, 26-0, on Saturday to finish a second consecutive unblemished regular season and win a third straight outright league title. That sets them up to play No. 4 seed Alabama on Jan. 1, 2024, in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Shortly after learning the team’s matchup, Michigan’s Blake Corum — whose two touchdowns Saturday left him tied with Anthony Thomas (55) for the all-time Michigan lead — said playing in the Rose Bowl, nicknamed "The Granddaddy of Them All" by broadcaster Keith Jackson years ago, is the reason he returned to Ann Arbor for his senior season.

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"This the moment I was born for, it feels like,” Corum said with a smile. “Being able to be the No. 1 team in the nation, first of all; play in the Rose Bowl against a great Alabama team. SEC vs. Big Ten. Does it get bigger than this? I don’t know.

"I’m getting chills right now just thinking about it, we’re blessed right now, man. So thankful.”

The Wolverines gathered on Sunday afternoon in a ballroom on the second floor of their hotel in downtown Indianapolis to find out their opponent — the options included Big 12 champion Texas, ACC champion (and undefeated) Florida State and SEC champion Alabama.

The Tide, who were merely No. 8 in last week's CFP rankings then beat then-No. 1 Georgia on Saturday, were the pick.

That brought an unexpected outpouring of sympathy from across the room.

Corum and defensive lineman Kris Jenkins said they sympathized with Florida State, a team that won 13 games while playing a Power Five schedule that included a season-opening game against a top-10 LSU team. The Seminoles became the first unbeaten Power Five conference champion left out of the CFP in 10 seasons — but Coru and Jenkins also noted that it’s not their concern at this point.

“When I saw Alabama pop up, I was like, ‘This is going to be a good matchup,' ” Corum said. “I would want no other team than Alabama to pop up. I love a good matchup, I love a good challenge.”

U-M's last game against Alabama was certainly a good challenge. That was the 2020 Citrus Bowl in Orlando. The Wolverines grabbed an early 13-7 lead, but the Tide scored 28 of the final 31 and cruised to a 35-16 victory.

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Michael Barrett, now a sixth-year senior linebacker and captain, was a sophomore who only played on special teams that day, but he recalls the athletes on the field were as elite as he has seen.

"They had some weapons on that team, that's all I can remember," Barrett said. "They had like Devonta Smith, Jerry Jeudy, Najee Harris, their team was loaded. ... This year I know they got a lot of talent, always got a lot of talent. Great coach, one of the best coaches in the country. ... So we've got to execute our game plan."

The Wolverines say they will not be intimidated by the pedigree of coach Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide.

Harbaugh's team went into the selection show with the mentality of being willing to play any team in any place. Of course, players also noted they were the first Big Ten team to earn the top CFP spot — the Wolverines also vaulted to the top of the Associated Press poll for the first time since winning the AP title for the 1997 season — so they shouldn't have to look up to anyone.

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"We are the top dog, that’s how we’re going to approach it," Corum said. "They’re a great team. We’re not going to go in there and say, 'They’re Alabama, a team that’s won and won and won.' Nah, we’re that team.

"We’ve been winning, and we deserve to be the No. 1 team, that’s how my mindset is. The committee chose us to be the No. 1 team, so I’m not going to act like we’re not."

The main challenge for Michigan this time around is simply getting the job done. The Wolverines have admitted they were shell-shocked in their first CFP appearance in 2021, simply happy to be facing Georgia after the program's first Big Ten title in 17 years.

Last year was a different story, Corum said. In the 2022 CFP semifinal in the Fiesta Bowl, TCU made fewer mistakes and "was the better team." The close loss to the Horned Frogs has fueled this group since that time.

"From the beginning of the year, even the offseason, we took a different mindset,” Corum said. “We knew we’d been to the College Football Playoff, twice, but couldn’t finish. It came down to execution, it came down to taking care of the small things. When you play in a big game like this, you must execute at the highest level.

“I believe this team, the leaders that we have. … We’re ready to take that next step. You would think we would learn our lesson, learn from our mistakes and be ready to advance.”

A lot of that will have to do with the lines. Michigan has won the Joe Moore Award, awarded annually to the nation's best offensive line, each of the past two seasons. And yet, U-M lost the trench battle — on both sides — in both CFP semifinals.

Perhaps no program is more synonymous with hulking linemen than the one that hails from Tuscoloosa.

"They've got big boys in the trenches, they play trench ball, they can run the ball," said Jenkins, the defensive tackle. "But we like to consider ourselves a physical team too. We've got big boys, we've got a lot of talent in the trenches, so it's definitely going to be a gritty game.

"We're excited for that, it's kind of the games we live for."

Of course, U-M knows this will goes well beyond just the line.

Quarterback J.J. McCarthy, whose Heisman Trophy candidacy withered in November as he dealt with a leg injury, has just one touchdown the past five weeks. He also has the spectre of a double pick-six performance in last year's CFP semifinal hanging over him.

Likewise, defensive coordinator Jesse Minter's unit is haunted by the 37 points it allowed (not counting the two pick-sixes) in its most recent game against a non-Big Ten Power Five team. Michigan had no answer for a mobile quarterback in TCU's Max Duggan — Alabama's Jalen Milroe could present a similar problem — and Horned Frogs' running backs hopped through U-M's interior.

The Wolverines know they'll need improved performances across the board on Jan. 1, and that begins in early December.

“I know coach Harbaugh is giving us the week off," Corum said, as teammates all around him grabbed their bags and headed down the escalator for the fleet of team buses that awaited to take them to their charter. "We can take off on our body, but we must attack the film and prepare right now."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football 'getting chills' over matchup with Alabama