Kornacki: There Was No Stopping the Wolverines in Bowl Win
1/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Kornacki
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The walls of the Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium couldn't keep reporters in the interview room from hearing the euphoric sounds in the University of Michigan locker room. The Wolverines were singing "The Victors" with such gusto that the words echoed down the hall and through cinder block, and the players followed up on that with a spirited rendition of "It's Great to Be a Michigan Wolverine!"
When you beat Florida, 41-7, in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, dominating the Southeastern Conference East Division champions, you don't hold back in your celebration.
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said after Friday's (Jan. 1) game, "Just being in our locker room, I can tell you this: I don't know about the word -- what word to describe it other than if you could have been there with us in the locker room, you would have noticed that guys like being on our ball team. We're on a ball team.
"And we like being on that ball team. And I know there's guys in that locker room that really like (it). (They're) happy they're on a ball team and glad it's this one and like what we got going on."
The Wolverines bounded up and down for joy, as if on pogo sticks, while singing their songs. They stopped at times to hug and slap backs. Hey, no New Year's Eve celebration was anywhere near this emotional.
And that love of being together, playing together and selling out for one another enabled the No. 17 Wolverines to finish 10-3 and double their win total from 2014. The kindred spirit club that formed this season in Ann Arbor was part of the reason Harbaugh said this on Thursday (Dec. 31):
"It's been -- if we win the game -- my favorite year in football personally.'
So, after the win sparked by quarterback Jake Rudock, the question came quickly for Harbaugh to "revisit" that comment.
"Yeah," said Harbaugh, "I had thought long and hard before making that statement and told the team the same thing."
And they came through for Harbaugh after he put that out. Game MVP Rudock threw for 278 yards and three touchdowns in his final game for the Wolverines, and Jehu Chesson caught five passes for 118 yards and a touchdown while dominating highly-touted cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III. De'Veon Smith ran with great determination for 109 yards. And the defense beat up the Gators, holding them to two yards total offense in the third quarter to nail down the game.
Jake Rudock (left), De'Veon Smith (middle), Jehu Chesson (right)
Harbaugh called them "a great group of guys" that he "really enjoyed to coach."
He also pointed to his assistants, saying, "I give them the credit in terms of coaching, but the way the staff came together, the trust that everybody had, we were real allies for each other."
Harbaugh noted the positive experience his wife, Sarah, and children had.
And he pointed to doing this in the manner and spirit of his coach, Bo Schembechler, and his father, Jack Harbaugh.
Then the coach leaned in toward Rudock, seated next to him at the press conference, and Smith and smiled widely before adding, "And I bet if you ask Jake Rudock, 'Jake, is this your best year in football?' "
Rudock grinned, nodded and said, "Yeah. It's hard to argue with that."
The quarterback later added: "I'm just really excited about what we were able to do. Ten wins is no small feat in college football. It's very difficult to get there. And I'm just so thankful that we were able to do that as a team. That's the biggest thing."
Harbaugh asked Smith if it was his best year, and he agreed it was. The coach noted that many on the team would answer likewise. Then Harbaugh spoke of the NFL futures that awaited Rudock and center Graham Glasgow, gushing about players he came to love.
"Graham Glasgow, what an amazing player," said Harbaugh. "I bet he's going to be a -- he could be a first-round pick, the way he played today, the way he's played all year against -- there are pro players on that Florida defensive line, without question. I mean, Jake Rudock getting hit and passes against corners that were going to be playing in the NFL, he's going to be drafted. De'Veon was a man possessed running the football. I don't think I've seen our offense play better.
"And defensively, same thing. Jarrod Wilson, I think he'll be a guy that's drafted to the NFL, got an interception today, and it's his best year of football. If you asked him, he'd probably say that. And talk to our four linebackers. They all will have a chance to play at the next level as well. And probably about 10, 11 guys on this team that won't be back next year, but we'll watch them in August. We'll take a few hours off and watch you guys play in the NFL. It would be great.
"And for the rest of us, guys like De'Veon and me, I mean, onward to 2016. This was the beginning of that year."
The future is very bright indeed.
Late in Michigan's dismantling of Florida, a fan in a section of Wolverines fans held up a blue sign with a meaningful inscription in maize: "THOSE WHO STAY WILL BE CHAMPIONS."
It was the well-known mantra of Schembechler, and every player who stayed with him for four years realized that goal, becoming a Big Ten champion.
Now, it's safe to say that the Wolverines' credo once again applies.
I asked Harbaugh and several players if this season would one day be viewed as the foundation for building something special.
Harbaugh noted Michigan, the winningest team in college football, has a "well-placed" foundation.
"We're not saying this is the greatest year in the history of Michigan football," said Harbaugh. "Michigan football has been around for a long, long time. But this team, this team acquitted themselves very well."
Smith, looking more at recent history, which has seen the Wolverines go since 2011 without a bowl win, said, "It set a foundation for us, I think, because we showed the heart out there. We're going to carry this over into next year in 2016. I believe our team will do that and I'm pretty sure Coach Harbaugh will push us until we do that."
Wilson, the sure-tackling senior free safety, said, "This season was a steppingstone for a program going in the right direction. With 10 wins this season, the expectations will be higher and higher. Next year, I expect these guys to compete for a national championship."
Johnson, who ran for 58 yards on six carries, said, "Success leads to more success if you do things right."
The Wolverines did pretty much everything right against the Gators in what Harbaugh termed "the best game we played all year."
And keep in mind that Florida entered the game as the No. 6 defense in the nation with 295.4 yards allowed. The Wolverines rolled for 503 yards and had the second-largest margin of victory in school bowl history since a 49-0 win over Southern Cal in the 1948 Rose Bowl. Michigan's 42-7 win over North Carolina State in the 1994 Outback Bowl has been the only bigger scoring difference since.
The Gators didn't allow more points in a game this season and played Alabama much closer in a 29-15 loss in the SEC championship game. You know, of course, that the Crimson Tide rolled on Michigan State, 38-0, in the Cotton Bowl.
When asked to compare Michigan to an SEC opponent, Florida center Trip Thurman said, "I think they -- there are some roots of Alabama up front. We talked about it all week in preparation. They're going to want to play smash-mouth football. And like Coach (Jim McElwain) has mentioned numerous times before, we just didn't have it today. They took it to us on both sides of the ball."
McElwain said, "I really think they -- they out-physicaled us.'
Controlling the line of scrimmage against quality opponents is how teams win championships of all kinds.
And the Wolverines believe that big things are ahead.
"It's striving for that 15-0 season," said Johnson, who clicked his heels after catching an eight-yard touchdown pass and scored the game's first touchdown on a four-yard run. "Striving for that 15-0 record -- now we know we can do that. We can play with people.
"If we come together as a team, we can really go great places...It's great to be a Michigan Wolverine -- it really is."
