Wolverines Suffocate Iowa to Claim Big Ten Title; Head to Rose Bowl Matchup with Alabama as No. 1

Cornerback Mikey Sainristil named game MVP after 26-0 shutout, Harbaugh exclaims: 'I feel great! It's super great!'

Photos by Derek Kornacki

Injured captain Zak Zinter hoists the 2023 Big Ten championship game trophy with game MVP and captain Mikey Sainristil to his immediate right and fellow offensive guard Trevor Keegan shouting behind and to his right. It was presented to him by conference commissioner Tony Petitti, who was showered with boos for suspending Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for the last three regular season games.

Wolverine coach Jim Harbaugh connects with fans while headed to the tunnel at Lucas Oil Stadium after becoming the first Big Ten coach to win three consecutive outright championships. He asked fans, “Who’s got it better than us?”

By Steve Kornacki

INDIANAPOLIS – Suffocating.

Absolutely, totally suffocating.

That’s what Michigan’s defense was Saturday night in a 26-0 win over Iowa in the Big Ten championship game.

The No. 1 Wolverines (13-0) stayed here overnight, and were together in a hotel ballroom when learning Sunday that they had moved into the top seed, and will face No. 4 Alabama (12-1) Jan. 1 in the Rose Bowl for a classic matchup between college football’s two winningest programs.

“I feel great!” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said on ESPN. “It’s super great! It’s super great!”

The Crimson Tide beat former No. 1 Georgia Saturday in the SEC championship game to set up one of the grandest games ever played in the “Granddaddy of Them All.”

The Wolverines last played in Pasadena in 2006 and lost to USC, and last won there in capping the 1997 national championship season by beating Washington State.

And they have the defense to thank for getting to the top headed into the CFP, and for beating the tough Hawkeyes (10-3) in a game in which its offense wasn’t at its best.

“Glorious defensive performance,” Harbaugh said. “Just tremendous, lights-out…Incredible shutout.”

The Wolverines forced and recovered three fumbles while adding three turnovers on downs by stopping the Hawkeyes on all three fourth down plays.

Cornerback Mikey Sainristil -- with two forced fumbles, one sack, one pass break up and one quarterback hurry -- was named the game’s MVP, and punt returner Semaj Morgan’s 87-yard punt return was the play of the game.

Harbaugh said of Sainristil: “Just a playmaker. When a play has to be made, when the magic needs to happen, Mikey makes it happen. It's been game after game. Especially down the stretch here these final four games, he has been a stalwart. He intercepts. He makes the big hit. He makes the big hit in the fumble, causes a fumble. Just an incredible player.

“He does it by always being in the right place where he's supposed to be, playing the right technique at all times, leading other guys to do the exact same thing. But he also does it as a superior athlete. That combination comes together, superior athlete and a guy that does everything right. It's fun to watch.”

The Hawkeyes, who came in with one of the lowest-ranked offenses in the nation, didn’t cross midfield until five minutes remained in the third quarter. They never penetrated deeper than the Wolverine 44-yard line, and were never so much as in field goal range.

The Wolverines held Iowa to 35 yards rushing, 120 yards passing and 155 yards total offense. It was their fewest yards allowed in a game this year.

The Hawkeyes didn’t have a run longer than 6 yards and its longest pass was for 19 yards.

Michigan had sacks from edge rushers Braiden McGregor, Jaylen Harrell and Derrick Moore as well as Sainristil.

The Wolverines had eight pass breakups – including two from both edge rusher Josaiah Stewart and linebacker Junior Colson. There were five quarterback hurries, and McGregor led the way with a pair.

Michigan lowered its NCAA-leading points allowed per game to 9.5, and got its second shutout to go with the 49-0 thrashing of Michigan State in East Lansing.

“Glorious defensive performance,” said Harbaugh. “Just tremendous, lights-out. Three-and-outs, I think were maybe four on the game [there were six]…Incredible shutout…So, just spectacular.”

Sainristil, moving over from nickel back with first team All-Big Ten selection Will Johnson out with an ankle injury suffered against Ohio State, had two of the biggest plays in the game.

He tackled running back Jaziun Patterson low to cause a fumble recovered by lineman Kris Jenkins in the first half, and sacked quarterback Deacon Hill in the second half to create another fumble recovered by cornerback Josh Wallace.

Iowa struggled mightily on offense, getting just seven first downs.

And when McGregor batted the ball out of Hill’s hand as he attempted to throw and lineman Kenneth Grant recovered it early in the fourth quarter at the Iowa 15-yard line, it was something to behold.

The Hawkeyes were being harassed seemingly at every turn.

The Wolverines scored 10 points off turnovers and James Turner was perfect on four field goal attempts from 35, 46, 36 lastly 50 yards – setting a conference championship game record for the longest. The transfer from Louisville is 16-for-18 on attempts this season, and has provided a more than adequate replacement for All-American Jake Moody – now a highly-successful placekicker for the San Francisco 49ers.

Michigan had only 213 yards total offense in the game, but regularly received solid field position from its defense to put points on the scoreboard. Standout offensive guard Zak Zinter broke his leg in two places against Ohio State, but inspired his teammates from the sideline. He had a successful surgery last Saturday and is expected to make a full recovery.

His dominant presence on the field was missed, though.

Blake Corum – who mentioned with a smile that he had a successful surgery exactly 365 days ago -- scored two touchdowns on runs of 2 and 6 yards to tie Anthony Thomas (1997-2000) for the most career rushing touchdowns at Michigan with 55. He extended his single-season rushing touchdown record to 24.

Corum passed 1,000 yards on his first carry of the second half, and ended up rushing 16 times for 52 yards to give him 1,028 yards on the season. He rushed for 1,463 yards in 2022, and is the first Michigan tailback to have consecutive 1,000-yard seasons since current Wolverine running backs coach Mike Hart in 2006 (1,562) and 2007 (1,361).

Morgan had that 87-yard punt return to provide the only offensive thrills of a slug-it-out first half.

He fielded it at his own 8-yard line and didn’t signal for a fair catch despite defenders fast approaching. Morgan juked a few defenders, and didn’t take long to hit full speed and then hit full stride. He cut to the left sideline and appeared to be gone.

However, Morgan slowed inside the 10-yard line while switching the ball to his left arm and was knocked out of bounds at the 5 by Koen Entringer, a freshman from Ypsilanti, Mich. Morgan switched the location of the ball to virtually assure that any potential fumble went out of bounds.

Consider this:

Morgan gained more on that one return than Iowa’s first-half total offense of 61 yards. And the Wolverines weren’t a whole lot better with 111 yards at that point.

Morgan’s was the third-longest punt return in school history behind Desmond Howard’s 93-yard touchdown with the Heisman pose in 1991 against Ohio State and Dave Brown’s 88-yard touchdown versus Colorado in 1974.

But this was a night for the defense, and when Moore sacked Hill at the Iowa 39-yard line on foruth-and-12 with 1:51 remaining, the shutout was assured.

And so its three consecutive outright titles – a first for a program that leads college football with 1,002 wins and has been playing football for 144 years. Harbaugh also became the first Big Ten coach to win three outright titles.

The Wolverines last won three consecutive conference championships, 1988-92, during a five-year streak. During that run put together by head coaches Bo Schembechler and successor Gary Moeller, all but the 1990 championship were outright.

“It feels great,” said Corum. “But to have three back-to-back-to-back Big Ten championships, it's a wonderful feeling. We've kind of changed the narrative on how people look at Michigan. So back-to-back-to-back feels great. But like I always say, like Kobe Bryant said, the job is not finished. We set these goals at the beginning of the season, and we hold ourselves to such a high standard, we must accomplish those goals. Today was a great stepping stone, but like Coach [Harbaugh] said, we're going to enjoy this one. We're going to enjoy this.”

Sainristil smiled and added, “It just feels great. Guys like me and Blake, this is what we came back for, to have the success with this team. Like the brotherhood that this team has is one that I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world, and this team is going down in history…Coach [Harbaugh] is probably going to say it. I'm going to say it first before he says it. The worm has turned around here.”

Harbaugh, seated next to him at the press conference, nodded and said: “You took the words out of my mouth. You look at this whole group, and [quarterback] J.J. [McCarthy], Blake, Mikey, so many others. The worm has turned. These are the guys. I mean, these Michigan football players, when you look back at the history of Michigan football, wrote the book on getting the worm to turn.

“The worm is pretty slippery. That thing can start wiggling back and forth and turning back on you. The hook got put in it. The hook got put in the worm. They've written the book on how to do it. It wasn't that long ago we were saying, I mean, we're going to do this or we're going to die trying. They just give everything they got. That's all we ask them is to give it their very best, but they give everything they have on a daily basis.”

The worm will turn up next in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.

Photo by Derek Kornacki

Wolverine star defensive tackle Kenneth Grant wears a Big Ten Championship hat while holding up a newspaper with a headline proclaiming “A-MAIZE-ING” with a photo of tailback Blake Corum, who rushed for two touchdowns and surpassed 1,000 yards for the second consecutive season.