Huskies Did Unto Michigan What Was Done to Them in January

Both times it was a matter of finishing strong and the current group got it done.

Drew Fowler, after missing three games earlier in the season, pulled significant linebacker time against Michigan. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Talents levels between college football teams are becoming more indistinguishable all the time, in this era of the free-wheeling transfer portal, or did you not notice that Vanderbilt upset Alabama last weekend?

So while people can line up all of their 5-star players and gloat about their overflowing name, image and likeness budgets, it now gets neutralized and the outcome on Saturday more and more just comes down to who wants it the most.

A sellout crowd and NBC national TV audience watched this transpire this past Saturday from the Washington football team, which overcame a three-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter to topple Michigan 27-17 at Husky Stadium.

Nine months earlier, the Wolverines did the same thing to the UW, taking a seven-point lead into the final period and enlarging it into a 34-13 victory in the College Football Playoff national championship game in Houston, demonstrating a better finishing kick.

Drew Fowler prepares to knock heads with Michigan running back Tavierre Dunlap. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Which begs to ask: could the Huskies have won that title game on another day with their dozen or so NFL-bound players by catching a necessary break here and there, changing the momentum and "fourth-quartering" Michigan back then as UW players did this past weekend?

"Yeah, absolutely, football is funny," Husky linebacker Drew Fowler said. "It's really easy to lead the game and talk about woulda, coulda, shoulda. They beat us. It hurt. We had to take that all offseason and everything that went on."

As for making a victorious outcome happen this time, Fowler said the Huskies came away with plenty of awareness of what it would take to get there with a new team, new coaching staff and different circumstances.

"This year, we've really prided ourselves in how we finish games, our conditioning, how we practice," the sixth-year senior said. "To see that show up in the fourth quarter, to taking Michigan out of it and just looking at ourselves, we're really proud of that."

Drew Fowler leaves the field at the CFP national championship game in Houston. / Skylar Lin Visuals

While these current UW players have moved with a Michigan win and headed to Iowa for a big road game this weekend, it still makes others wonder what extra might have been required to reverse January's title-game outcome.

"We really noticed after this game how good it felt to kind of get that revenge," said Fowler, who remains a realist. "Yeah, last year is last year."

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