Yes, The Michigan Wolverines Will Be Back

It was a tough and unexpected ending to an otherwise magical season, but the Michigan Wolverines aren't going away anytime soon.

It's been wild to see the reaction from Saturday's loss. I've seen calls for JJ to be replaced, assistants to be fired, even Harbaugh himself to be fired. 

To be clear, the Michigan Wolverines did not play their best game on Saturday. They definitely made some big-time plays, but they also made some mistakes - critical mistakes - that ultimately proved too much to overcome. The end result? A six-point loss in the College Football Playoff Semifinal for the second-straight season.

Think about that for a minute.

It wasn't all that long ago that the norm for Michigan Football fans included a 50/50 shot at Michigan State, an annual ass-beating by Ohio State, and watching two other Big Ten programs compete for a conference championship in Indy. It wasn't all that long ago that the very idea of making the college football playoff was almost laughable. 

What was once the norm for this program is now a distant memory, and the new norm is one that every Michigan Football fan should fully embrace.

The new norm for the football program in Ann Arbor is beating your rivals, including two straight over Ohio State for the first time in over two decades. The new norm is winning conference championships, with back-to-back Big Ten titles for the first time since 2003-04. The new norm is being part of the College Football Playoff and having a legitimate shot at winning a national championship. 

Michigan is back to being right where it's supposed to be, and one loss - albeit a painful one - doesn't change that new reality. 

Following last year's CFP Semifinal loss to Georgia, Blake Corum assured fans that they'd be back the following season as he walked off the field. "We'll be back," said Corum to the crowd of Wolverine faithful. "I promise you."

He was right.

Following this year's CFP Semifinal loss to TCU, both JJ McCarthy and Donovan Edwards echoed the same words: We'll be back.

“Fought our hearts out,” McCarthy said. “There’s a lot of things that we could have done better. Can’t wait to watch the tape. But we’ll be back, and I promise that.”

Both McCarthy and Edwards will also be proven right in the months ahead. Michigan will be back in this same position in 2023; back to beating Ohio State in Ann Arbor, back to the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis, and ultimately right back into the College Football Playoff for the third consecutive year. 

That doesn't mean it'll be easy, or that the path toward a return to the CFP will come without some bumps in the road...but this is a new era in Ann Arbor. The coaching staff is championship-level, and the chemistry (and brotherhood) within the locker room is elite. The Michigan Football football program is elite.

Prior to Semifinal game against TCU, McCarthy said that the teammates love one another. When asked where that love comes from, McCarthy simply said, "shared suffering." The Wolverines have talent, experience, and now a new experience of shared suffering that will undoubtedly fuel them for the remainder of the off-season.

In 2021, team 142 changed the narrative by beating Ohio State, winning a Big Ten Championship and making their first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff. In 2022, team 143 proved that it wasn't just a fluke - repeating that same success in dominant fashion. In 2023, it will be team 144 that reminds the college football world once again that the Wolverines are here to stay. 

Does that mean that Michigan will be hoisting the national championship trophy when it's all said and done? Maybe, maybe not...but I certainly wouldn't bet against them.