It must have felt like a dream for No. 1 Michigan. A California dream, the ultimate blast from the past.
Jim Harbaugh – a Bo Schembechler clone – patrolled the sideline at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. J.J. McCarthy – a Harbaugh clone – led a fourth-quarter comeback. Blake Corum – the classic Wolverines' running back – dashed in for the go-ahead touchdown in overtime, and the Michigan defense mustered the granddaddy of all stops to close out No. 4 Alabama in a 27-20 classic College Football Playoff semifinal on Monday.
That dream – the one the Wolverines conjured up when Harbaugh arrived in 2015 to lift a down-and-out program – is no longer fan-fiction.
Michigan (14-0) advanced to the College Football Playoff championship game against No. 2 Washington (14-0) at NRG Stadium in Houston on Jan. 8. The Wolverines finally conquered Alabama (12-2) – the SEC powerhouse with six national championships under Nick Saban – to get there.
Jim Harbaugh, Michigan push toward national championship
Michigan also exorcised apparitions of Rose Bowls past in the form of a drought that extended back to Jan. 1, 1998 – when the Wolverines beat No. 8 Washington State 21-16 for an AP national championship.
The ghosts of bowl failures present – which included five straight losses to SEC schools since Harbaugh arrived – are less relevant now. The specter of an uncertain nightmare with double-barrel NCAA investigations will be put on hold after a vintage performance in Pasadena, at least until after Jan. 8.
The Wolverines haven't won a January game of this magnitude since Tom Brady guided Michigan to a pair of 14-point comebacks in a 35-34 Orange Bowl thriller on Jan. 1, 2000 – ironically against No. 5 Alabama – a game which ended on an ill-fated missed extra point.
MORE: Corum, defense lead Michigan past Alabama
The Crimson Tide (12-2) were left wondering what might have been after quarterback Jalen Milroe was stopped short by Michigan linebacker Derrick Moore on fourth-and-goal. Second-team All-American defensive tackle Mason Graham – an Anaheim, Calif., native, set up that moment with a clutch tackle for loss that pushed Alabama back to the 14-yard line on third down.
Two plays later, Michigan players stormed the field in delirium. How else could you describe that feeling?
"It's a dream come true," Graham said on the ESPN telecast. "Even to be able to play in this game means a lot. We're happy to be here, but we have one more to go."
For all the misguided talk about Michigan adversity off the field, this time the Wolverines' self-inflicted damage on the field with a string of special teams miscues.
A muffed-punt turnover. A botched extra-point snap. A missed field goal. A near-fatal bobbled punt nearly filled the bingo card that always damned Michigan in these moments.
When Alabama took a 20-13 lead on Will Reichard's 52-yard field goal with 4:41 remaining, all those predetermined narratives were building.
Another missed opportunity. Michigan is just another Big Ten choke artist who can't catch up to the SEC. Will Harbaugh be the Los Angeles Chargers' coach after Black Monday?
J.J. McCarthy, Blake Corum deliver for Wolverines
Those veteran Michigan leaders – McCarthy and Corum in particular – changed the narrative. McCarthy hit Corum for an 8-yard touchdown pass and Tyler Morris for a 38-yard TD in the first half.
Trailing by a TD in the fourth quarter, McCarthy went to work. He guided a TD drive with a clutch fourth-and-2 conversion to Corum, which set up Roman Wilson's four-yard TD catch with 1:34 left.
MORE: Corum sets Michigan TD record in win
McCarthy finished 17 of 27 for 221 yards and three TDs. He improved to 26-1 as a starter for the Wolverines. Maybe he is a Brady clone after all.
"I just feel like it was everything that we were battling all year," McCarthy said on the postgame telecast. "It was waiting to come out in moments like these where we perfect all the little details, and we were ready to go execute."
Corum – the senior running back who missed the College Football Playoff last year because of a knee injury – did the rest in two overtime runs; the second a 17-yard TD that gave Michigan an unthinkable 27-20 lead.
Then, the defense – which ranked No. 1 in the FBS in points per game – came up with the stop on the ensuing drive. There would be no fourth-and-31 moment, no CFP nightmare, no national championship participant for the SEC for the first time since 2014.
It's the Big Ten's most-significant CFP semifinal since No. 4 Ohio State upset No. 1 Alabama 42-35 in the 2015 Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2015. That was two days after Harbaugh was hired and a week before the Buckeyes claimed the conference's last national championship. A moment like this was a pipe-dream then.
Now, Michigan is back on that stage – and it has been earned by taking out Alabama despite the offseason and in-season distractions in Ann Arbor.
Harbaugh – the coach who served two separate three-game suspensions this season with the fallout from two NCAA investigations looming – defied all those ghosts – at least for one more week. He used a familiar phrase dating back to his days with the San Francisco 49ers. Of course, it came with a classic off-beat deflection from ESPN's Rece Davis' question.
"I want to say Happy New Year to everybody," Harbaugh said. "It's a great way to start the New Year. I want to congratulate Alabama. They're an outstanding team, and they’re great fans. But you nailed it the first time, 'Who's got it better than us?'"
Not Alabama, Ohio State or Georgia. The only possible answer is Washington, and Corum wasted no time looking forward to the new reality.
"We'll see you in Houston," Corum said.
We'll see how that dream ends, too.