PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Jalen Milroe caught a low snap on fourth down in overtime at the Rose Bowl and ran straight ahead into wall of blue and maize.
That wall of Michigan defenders had been hardened by the Wolverines’ violent practice drills. Toughened by two previous College Football Playoff losses. Made impenetrable by months of turmoil that battered the program and its beloved head coach, Jim Harbaugh.
Alabama’s quarterback went nowhere.
The Wolverines are going to Houston.
Blake Corum rushed for a 17-yard touchdown on the second snap of overtime, and top-seeded Michigan advanced to its first CFP championship game with a 27-20 victory over fourth-seeded Alabama in the Rose Bowl on Monday night.
Harbaugh’s Wolverines (14-0) will play for their school’s first national title since 1997 against Washington on Jan. 8 — but only after a fourth-quarter comeback and a hair-raising finish when the two winningest programs in college football history played just the second overtime game in the 110 editions of the Granddaddy of Them All.
“Glorious. That was glorious,” Harbaugh said. “It was a tremendous football game.”
Roman Wilson made a 4-yard TD catch with 1:34 left in regulation for the Wolverines, who hadn’t scored in the second half until that gritty 75-yard drive led by J.J. McCarthy.
Corum, who caught an early TD pass and rushed for 83 yards, needed only two snaps to score in the first overtime period, breaking tackles and spinning wildly into the end zone.
After Milroe was stopped 2 yards short of the end zone on the final snap, the Wolverines’ entire sideline sprinted onto the field, throwing a few helmets in the air while fireworks soared from behind the Rose Bowl scoreboard.
“Everything that we went through this entire year made us unbreakable, and in the biggest moments, we were going to show up,” said McCarthy, who passed for 221 yards and three touchdowns to win the Offensive Player of the Game award.
Jase McClellan rushed for 87 yards and two touchdowns for Alabama (12-2), which fell heartbreakingly short of the chance to play for Nick Saban’s seventh national title at the school. The Tide led 20-13 on Will Reichard’s 52-yard field goal with 4:41 to play, but their defense couldn’t preserve it.
“We just didn’t finish the last four minutes of the game like we would like to, and we’re all very disappointed,” Saban said. “But one thing I told them in the locker room, this is one of the most amazing seasons in Alabama football history in terms of where this team came from and what they were able to accomplish.”
Milroe passed for 116 yards and rushed for 63 for the Tide, whose 11-game winning streak ended.
Michigan is the sixth straight No. 1 seed to win its semifinal game in the CFP’s 10 years of existence — but only after surviving just the third overtime Playoff game. After everything that has happened to Michigan in the past several months, Harbaugh believes his team is primed to keep fighting.
“If ever a game was going to be won up front, it was going to be won with toughness and physicality,” Harbaugh said. “Our guys were just there in rhythm and got it done. Epic game. Epic game. The stick-togetherness — I guess what people don’t know, how could they know, what the togetherness is like? There’s just nothing that can separate these guys.”
