HOUSTON — Amidst the maize and blue confetti that had fallen onto the field at NRG Stadium and the throng of football players and families taking pictures and putting on T-shirts, Jim Harbaugh emerged and swallowed up his 84-year-old father, Jack, in a bear hug.
He lifted him off the ground, holding him there for a few seconds of pure joy and delirious love. Then Harbaugh turned to his mother, Jackie, who pointed at his chest and yelled, “You did it! You did it!”
For a couple of months, everything around Harbaugh has been more complicated than it should have been. But in the end, this much was simple: Michigan was the national champion, and a deserving one after defeating Washington, 34-13, here in the College Football Playoff title game.
A 15-0 record.
Closing the season with wins over Ohio State, Alabama and Washington.
The best team in the country from Day 1 until the final play.
On the field, the Wolverines left no doubt. So why, after it was all over, did Harbaugh come into a press conference and feel compelled to say the following words:
“We’re innocent.”
I’m not here to tell you that Michigan’s long-awaited national title — its first outright championship since the Korean War — is tainted. The way Michigan closed out this season, beating the best college football had to offer this year under multiple clouds of uncertainty off the field, cannot be questioned. The best team won — and in the most important games, did so fair and square.
But the Wolverines made it easy to be cynical about what should have been a great college football story.
You wanted something new and different after a decade of Alabama, Georgia and Clemson dominating the playoff? Here was Michigan, a program that hadn’t really sniffed a title since sharing one in 1997.
You want a team that wasn’t built on recruiting rankings and blue-chip prospects? Here was Michigan, a program that out-evaluated and out-developed everyone with classes that barely made a ripple on signing day.
You want old-school, physical, fundamental football in an era of finesse offense and bad tackling? Here was Michigan, grinding opponent after opponent into dust.
You want a redemption story after two brutal playoff failures and a fulfilled promise from quarterback J.J. McCarthy that the Wolverines would be back? Here was Michigan, grabbing this entire season by the neck and making its dreams come true.
You want a too-perfect-for-Hollywood narrative about a former Michigan quarterback who spent his whole life loving the place, coming back as coach and nearly getting fired before restoring it to a bigger, better glory than the program had ever known? Here was Harbaugh, saying after the game that simply being eulogized as a Michigan Man would mean everything when they put him in the ground.
That was this Michigan team. That was this story. That was the greatness they managed to produce when few thought it was possible.
“Nothing fancy here,” Harbaugh said. “Just good old-fashioned teamwork, good old-fashioned hard work.”
It should have been simple.
It was not simple.
And it was Michigan’s own fault.
“The off-field issues,” Harbaugh said, “we’re innocent and we stood strong and tall because we knew we were innocent. And I’d like to point that out. These guys are innocent. And to overcome that, it wasn’t that hard because we knew we were innocent.”
So innocent that Harbaugh served a three-game suspension imposed by Michigan to begin the regular season and another three-game suspension to end the regular season imposed by the Big Ten.
So innocent that Connor Stalions, the architect of an elaborate sign-stealing scheme that clearly broke NCAA rules, was fired soon after it became public.
So innocent that Chris Partridge, the Wolverines’ linebackers coach, followed Stalions out the door because — at least according to a public statement from Partridge — he failed to comply with a directive not to discuss the investigation with anyone in the program.
So innocent that Harbaugh is probably going to leave Michigan for the NFL, at least in part because of the continuing investigations and penalties he’ll have to endure if he comes back.
Whether you care about these things or not — and Michigan fans undoubtedly don’t — they are part of the story of this run to a championship. They happened, they bred cynicism across college football, and in the end, they were totally unnecessary. After Stalions’ scheme was uncovered, Michigan beat the five toughest opponents on its schedule: Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa, Alabama and Washington.
‘We came out and proved we were the best team in the nation,” Michigan nose tackle Kenneth Grant said. “To be the best you have to beat the best, and we did that all season.”
They did, but they never should have had to prove anything more than winning the games in the first place. The fact that Michigan didn’t need to cheat to win doesn’t erase what happened. It will forever be part of the history of this season, and it was all so silly and unnecessary. Michigan shouldn’t have made it this hard for a nation to feel good about this team.
“I care about what my family, which is this team, my actual family, what they say,” defensive end Braiden McGregor said. “At the end of the day, because of them, we’re here. It’s not because of people on the outside. It didn’t matter. We went out there and proved it to ourselves.’
As the trophy ceremony finished and players began running back to the locker room, Jack Harbaugh told the story of when Jim called home and asked his parents if he should take the Michigan job. He had been in the NFL for four years with the San Francisco 49ers, nearly winning the Super Bowl in 2012.
Michigan was desperate, having cycled through the mediocrity of Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke while Ohio State was on the verge of becoming a powerhouse under Urban Meyer. His mother wasn’t so sure that coming home was a good idea. But Jack, who became the defensive backs coach under Bo Schembechler when Jim was 10 years old, grabbed the phone and tugged on his son’s heartstrings.
“I said ‘Jim, you played here, you ran around the stadium,’ ” he said. “Bo got on your tail and chewed you out for the little things you did. You need to come back and see if you can put Michigan in its rightful place in intercollegiate football.”
For six years, it was a promise unfulfilled. In 2020, the miserable COVID year, Michigan went 2-4. It seemed like the Harbaugh experiment was a failure. There was talk that he was going to get fired. Then in 2021, Michigan finally beat Ohio State and began a climb to the top that they’ll revel in for generations.
No matter what happens from here, Harbaugh delivered that. If he goes back to the NFL, there will be no complaints, just gratitude. When they bury him, he won’t just be a Michigan Man, but a Michigan legend — maybe the most important person in the history of the program.
That should have been the story, as pure as that hug with his parents Monday night. Instead, there will be a reckoning and a reality along with the ring.
Was it worth the minor recruiting violations that initially got the NCAA’s attention and the full-blown scandal that engulfed the program this fall? Of course.
But even in a season where Michigan left no doubt on the field, the debate over everything else will never go away.