Michigan Runs Away From Washington To Secure Its First National Championship Since 1997

A game which looked early like it would be a runaway win for Michigan from start to finish ended up being a one-possession rock fight for quite some time, but in the end it was still the Wolverines who came away with a decisive 34-13 victory to secure their first national championship in more than 25 years.

Michigan came out and smacked Washington in the mouth to the tune of two long touchdown runs on its first two drives and looked like the better team by far. It didn't seem out of the question that we'd have a second consecutive purple school getting ,assacred in the national title game.

The Huskies clawed their way back, though, to make it a 17-10 game just before halftime. In the second half, however, Michael Penix just didn't look like the guy we saw last week against Texas. He threw an interception on the first play of the third quarter and never seemed to recover.

The Wolverines declined to take control of the game until about halfway through the fourth quarter, but even when the Huskies were within one possession, it never really felt like the result was in doubt. And in the end, UM ran away with it to cap off a 15-0 season.

I know the "adversity" Michigan faced all season was self-inflicted and the NCAA will still have something to say about that whole situation at some point in the future, but the Wolverines still had to go out there and win 15 out of 15 games — six without their head coach on the sideline. Not too many teams have ever done that and now Jim Harbaugh has completed his quest for a ring at his alma mater.

Only time will tell what ends up happening regarding the future of Harbaugh and this Michigan program, but for now the only important thing is that the Wolverines are national champions. We'll never forget this Michigan team, that's for sure.