Michigan Monday: Game 14 vs. TCU (Vrbo Fiesta Bowl)
2022 CFP SEMIFINAL // VRBO FIESTA BOWL
#2 Michigan (13-0) vs. #3 TCU (12-1)
State Farm Stadium | Glendale, Ariz.
Saturday, Dec. 31 | 2 p.m. MT (4 p.m. ET)
Television: ESPN | Radio: Learfield Michigan Sports Network
What You Need to Know
• Michigan is 13-0 for the first time in program history.
• U-M has won more games (25) over the last two seasons than any two-year stretch in school history.
• Michigan is making its second appearance in the College Football Playoff (2021, 2022).
• The Wolverines will play in the Fiesta Bowl for the second time.
• Saturday's game will be the first-ever meeting with TCU.
• U-M won its league-leading 44th Big Ten Championship with a 43-22 win over Purdue (Dec. 3).
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Return to the College Football Playoff
• No. 2-seeded Michigan was selected to the College Football Playoff national semifinal and will face No. 3 TCU in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Eve.
• The Wolverines will be making their second appearance in the College Football Playoff in as many seasons.
• U-M's initial CFP selection came last year in the Orange Bowl, losing 34-11 to eventual national champion Georgia
• The Wolverines are one of only three Big Ten schools to qualify for the CFP: Ohio State and Michigan State are the others.
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Michigan is Going Bowl-ing
• The Wolverines will participate in a bowl game for the 50th time in school history.
• U-M has compiled a 21-28 record in bowl games, listing 11th in the NCAA in appearances and tied for 17th in victories.
U-M has played in 12 different bowl games during its history, winning 21 contests.
• Michigan will return to the Fiesta Bowl for just the second time in program history. The only previous appearance came during Jim Harbaugh's junior year, when he led Michigan to a 27-23 victory over Nebraska on Jan. 1, 1986.
• This will be Jim Harbaugh's ninth bowl game as a collegiate head coach. He enters the Fiesta Bowl game with a 2-6 record in bowl games, including a 1-5 mark at Michigan.
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Wolverines and Horned Frogs
• Saturday's contest will mark the first-ever meeting between the Wolverines and the Horned Frogs.
• TCU will become the 152nd all-time opponent for the Wolverines.
Series vs. TCU: First Meeting
Series Streak: First Meeting
Last Meeting vs. TCU: N/A
Last Michigan Win: N/A
Game Notes Nuggets
• Michigan has achieved its first-ever 13-0 season, eclipsing the previous record of 12 wins shared by the 1905, 1997, and 2021 teams. The program's 25 wins over the last two seasons are a program best in any two-year span.
• U-M (Penn State, Ohio State) and South Carolina (Tennessee, Clemson) are the only teams in the nation to have two wins against opponents ranked in the current AP Top 10. Michigan is one of 15 FBS schools to not play an FCS school during the regular season.
• U-M's 15-game conference win streak is the program's longest since a 16-game conference win streak spanning 1996-98. The Wolverines will seek to avenge a 0-1 record in the College Football Playoff.
• Quarterback J.J. McCarthy has begun his career as a starter with a 12-0 record, setting a new standard for most wins to begin a starting quarterback's career before his first loss. The previous record-holder, Dennis Franklin (1972), won his first 10 starts before suffering a loss.
• Michigan's five touchdowns of 45-plus yards against Ohio State were the most any team has scored against an AP Top-Five- ranked team in a single game since the 2005 season.
• U-M is scoring 40.1 points per game and allowing 13.4 points against, on average. Michigan is one of two teams ranked in the top 10 in both scoring offense (seventh) and scoring defense (fifth), along with Alabama (fourth, offense; ninth, defense).
• Michigan leads the country in scoring differential (+26.7). Georgia (+25.8) and Ohio State (+25.3) are the only other teams in the country with average scoring margins above +25 points per game. U-M (+347) and Georgia (+343) are the only teams to have outscored opponents by 305-plus points cumulatively this year.
• U-M has scored points on its opening possession in 11 of 13 games this season (eight touchdowns, three field goals).
• The Michigan defense has forced 48 three-and-outs on the season. In 13 games, the opponent's first second-half possession has resulted in a change of possession 12 times.
• Dating to late in the 2021 season, U-M has averaged three rushing touchdowns per game (51 rushing TDs in 17 games). The team has 38 in 13 games of 2022 (tied-No. 3, NCAA) and scored 13 in the final four games of 2021.
• Blake Corum had been the focal point of that rushing attack, ranking eighth in the country in rushing yards (1,463), the highest total by a Wolverine since Denard Robinson's 2010 season (1,702 yards) and the most by a U-M back since Mike Hart's junior season of 2006 (1,562 yards). He finished his season (injury) with 19 touchdowns and posted an in-season, eight-game streak of 100-plus rushing yards with at least one rushing score.
• Donovan Edwards leads the nation in yards per carry (7.45) with 872 yards on 117 carries. He is an explosive-play machine with five career touchdown runs of 50-plus yards, including the three in the last two games, plus one touchdown pass and one touchdown catch of 70-plus yards.
• Edwards is the first player in Michigan history with a touchdown pass (75 yards), touchdown catch (77 yards) and touchdown run (75 yards, 85 yards) of at least 75 yards in his career.
• The last player to score a touchdown of at least 75 yards in three different ways in his career was Tom Harmon, who did it all in the same game against California in 1940: 70-yard punt return, 86-yard run from scrimmage, 95-yard kickoff return. Harmon had five total scores in the game (one passing, one other rushing).
• McCarthy has thrown 20 passing touchdowns to three interceptions this season, a plus-17 rating when measuring touchdowns minus interceptions. Only Elvis Grbac's 1991 season, which featured a plus-19 rating (25 touchdown passes to six interceptions) is a better single-season mark.
• The offensive line has been the engine behind the offense and was rewarded by being named the first-ever back-to-back winner of the Joe Moore Award (2021-22) earlier this month. All four starters earned All-Big Ten honors in some form, including three first-team honorees (Trevor Keegan, Olusegun Oluwatimi, Zak Zinter). Oluwatimi was also named Michigan's first-ever Outland Trophy winner and was the recipient of the Rimington Trophy.
• So far this season, the offensive line has paved the way to an average of 5.97 yards per sack-adjusted carry, and 6.6 yards per play overall. The men up front have allowed just 56 negative plays on 895 offensive snaps (4.3 per game on 68.8 offensive snaps).
• The unit leads the Big Ten's best rushing attack (243.0 yards per game), which is ranked No. 5 nationally with eight games this season that included 3+ rushing touchdowns.
• Opponents have pressured a U-M passer 29 times (13 sacks, 16 hurries) in 13 games. When the line does allow a sack against starter McCarthy, it comes on an average of 4.60 seconds to throw, the tied-eighth-most time when considering passers with at least 100 dropbacks.
• J.J. McCarthy is among the most efficient passers in the nation, ranking 20th in that statistic (155.4) and he's even better on play action, averaging an FBS-best 13.1 yards per attempt on such plays (min. 50 dropbacks).
• When McCarthy starts and finishes a Michigan drive, U-M has produced 50 touchdowns and 22 field goals on 118 possessions, translating to points on 61 percent of drives. In his 12 starts, the team has scored in 52 of 56 red zone trips (92.8 percent) with him on the field, scoring 43 touchdowns.
• Receiver Ronnie Bell leads all U-M pass catchers in catches (56) and yards (754), while Cornelius Johnson holds the lead in receiving touchdowns (six). Nine different players have at least one touchdown catch.
• With touchdowns of 69 and 75 yards against the Buckeyes, Johnson became the first Wolverine to catch two passes at least 69 yards in the same game since Jeremy Gallon against Indiana in 2013.
• Tight end Luke Schoonmaker entered the 2022 season having never caught more than three passes in a game but has four or more catches in four games this year. He established new career highs in catches (nine at Indiana) and yards (72 vs. Maryland) during conference play.
• U-M's high scoring rates have Jake Moody (136 points) leading the nation in points with Blake Corum (114) eighth.
• The defense is No. 3 in total defense with top-five ranks in rushing (third), scoring, pass efficiency, and first downs allowed (fourth).
• No team has reached 150 yards on the ground against Michigan this season; nine of 13 teams have been kept below 300 yards of total offense (Maryland, Illinois, Ohio State, Purdue).
• Mike Morris leads the team in TFLs (11.0) and sacks (7.5) and ranks second in the Big Ten despite missing most of the last three games. Morris has PFF's No. 3 pass-rush productivity grade (PRP, minimum 65 pass-rush snaps) in the Big Ten.
• Kris Jenkins ranks sixth among all FBS defenders with a 15.0 run stop percentage. Run stop percentage is a metric by PFF that measures the percentage of a player's defensive snaps that result in a stuff on a run play. Mazi Smith (12.4 percent) is also a standout in this category, making U-M one of two Big Ten teams with a pair of teammates in the FBS' top-40 ranked individuals.
• Defensive backs Rod Moore and Will Johnson (three interceptions) are tied for the team lead in turnovers. Seven different Wolverines have at least one pick, and 18 different players have at least one pass breakup.
• Among punters with at least one punt per game (13), Brad Robbins' 4.34-second hang time is the best in the country, according to PFFCollege. He is one of two punters above 4.2 seconds and the only Big Ten punter above 4.01 seconds. The average among Big Ten punters who meet the same qualifications is 3.81 seconds.
• With Robbins directing the unit, no opponent has registered a punt return of 10-plus yards since U-M played Ohio State in the 2017 season (122 punts).
• Thirty-two (32) of Robbins' 38 punts have been downed, fair caught or rolled out of bounds. The other six have been returned for a combined total of 17 yards.
• Robbins' special teams partner Jake Moody has helped the Wolverines achieve a top-25 kickoff coverage unit, with opposing returners gaining 17.38 yards per return attempt. Moody has kicked off 94 times and leads the country in combined touchbacks (63) and fair catches (10) with 73.
• Moody is the third player in Michigan history to record consecutive 100-point seasons, joining Anthony Thomas (1999-2000) and Tom Harmon (1939-40). His 136 points this year are just two points shy of Desmond Howard (1991, 138 points) for the single-season record for points scored.
• Moody's 66 career made field goals are a Michigan record. He's made 26 during the 2022 season along with 58 PATs, both single-year records. His 15 career field goals from 40-plus yards are also a program record.
• Moody is the second-highest scorer in program history (344 career points). Only Garrett Rivas (354 points) has scored more points in his career for Michigan Football.
