The team that everyone loves to hate will be playing for college football’s national championship.
The Michigan Wolverines who have played under the shroud of sign-stealing allegations with their head coach suspended for the last three games of the regular season , will face Washington next week in Houston to decide who will be the king of the sport for 2023.
Jim Harbaugh, the effective if not popular head coach of the Maize and Blue will indeed be on the sidelines for one more game this year, leading his team against the Huskies.
Oh, did I mention that both schools are the only unbeaten teams left standing with perfect 13-0 records?
So, this is the way it should be, after all the anguish as to who should be in, who should be out.
The two best go face to face.
Defending champion Georgia didn’t return to the charmed circle of four, and Florida Statem unbeaten till they were crushed by the Bulldogs 63-3 in the Orange Bowl, didn’t make it either.
It was almost Alabama in the big one.
Written off after the recent successes of Georgia and a home loss to Texas in the second week of the season, Nick Saban’s Tide couldn’t stop Michigan’s Blake Corum in overtime, then ran into a brick wall on a strange final play selection that sealed their doom.
Jalen Milton, the latest big time Alabama QB, facing a door-die 4th down, 4 yards away from scoring and extending the game, ran straight into a mass of players and that was that.
Why Bama didn’t call for Milton to move outside to run or throw for the score was puzzling. But Mchigan’s staunch defensive line held solid. They sacked Jalen Milton on six occasions, five times in the first half.
The final score was 27-20.
You couldn’t find many, if any, who thought the Washington Huskies would play in the college football playoffs this season, but here they are.
And without a blemish as well.
After capturing their last three games by the skin of their teeth, the boys from Seattle had to sweat out a last-ditch effort by Texas to survive 37-31 setting up the collision against the Big Ten champions.
Washington was up by nine with less than three minutes to play, a Texas field goal cut the lead to six, but when the Huskies recovered an on-side-kick the Long Horns hopes appeared to be dashed.
But Texas still had a chance, and ultimately an incomplete pass in the end zone from the Washington 12 as time ran out ended things.
Having a great quarterback is magic in football as we’ll discuss later and the Huskies were armed with one of the best who gave a rousing exhibition against the Horns.
Michael Penix, Jr., the Heisman runner up completed 29 of 38 for 430 yards and two touchdowns and was nothing short of brilliant.
Washington has won 10 straight games by 10 or fewer points.
They’ll gladly accept number 11 against the Wolverines in the big showdown next week.
Still sticking with college football, it should be noted that I picked Syracuse University as the college of my choice for two reasons.
It boasted one of the finest journalism programs in the nation (this was before the legendary Newhouse School of Communications was built), and they won college football’s national championship in 1959.
Well, maybe the latter was really Number One.
Syracuse has had some impressive seasons since then, but nothing like the Ernie Davis-led juggernaut that beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl to complete a perfect season.
Lately, SU football has been nothing to write about, but I see signs that things could be changing.
I may be a cockeyed optimist, but Fran Brown may be the reason.
I know it’s easy to get on a bandwagon that hasn’t moved an inch, but here’s what I see.
Fran Brown ha the pedigree of coming from a top-flight Georgia program.
He is a renowned recruiter which is paramount for any school as we know, but perhaps even more so for Syracuse.
It has’t been easy attracting and bringing in top-of-the-line players.
The fact that former Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord is transferring to SU speaks to Brown’s reputation.
You don’t go anywhere without a real good one at that spot.
Now, the one thing Fran Brown hasn’t been, is a head coach.
This is his first shot.
In my view, a head coach is really a CEO of a football operation. Yes, he has to make those in-game decisions under pressure.
But the ideal head coach is a leader who know how to inspire and surround himself with sharp play-callers and solid assistants on the staff.
From this perch, it appears Fran Brown knows how to do this.
Let’s just say I am more than hopeful for my alma mater, and leave it at that.