TAMPA, Fla. — Final thoughts on Michigan’s 19-13 upset of Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl and a Wolverines team that rewrote its narrative with two improbable wins to end the 2024 season:
1. Speaking of rewriting narratives, we have to start with Wink Martindale. Martindale — refreshingly, in my opinion — is not one of those coaches who claims to be oblivious to what people are saying about him. Martindale is well aware of the critique that his aggression as a defensive play caller leaves his defense vulnerable to big plays. He can give all the reasons why that’s wrong, but the bottom line is that his defense needed to show it on the field. And that’s exactly what happened late in the season.
It’s tough to win with a single touchdown and fewer than 250 yards of offense. The odds of doing it two games in a row, against teams as talented as Ohio State and Alabama, are astronomically low. To put things in perspective, Michigan’s 190 yards were the fewest in the history of the ReliaQuest/Outback/Hall of Fame Bowl, which has been played since 1986. The Wolverines averaged 2.9 yards per play, which was the program’s lowest mark since 2013. And Michigan still won.
That’s a credit to Michigan’s defense, which seemingly flipped a switch in the second half of the Indiana game and didn’t look back. It was one thing to shut down Ohio State with Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant, Josaiah Stewart and other stars who will be playing in the NFL. It was another thing to shut down Alabama without those players and several other starters.
Michigan did it by stopping the run and getting pressure on the quarterback. Jalen Milroe attempted nine passes on Alabama’s final drive, and Michigan hit or hurried him on seven of them, including all four incompletions to end the game. Milroe helped Michigan’s pass rush by holding the ball too long at times, but that’s also a testament to the secondary’s ability to blanket Alabama’s wide receivers. Holding standout freshman Ryan Williams to three receptions for 8 yards was a heroic effort against one of the most talented wideouts in college football.
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2. The look of satisfaction on Martindale’s face as he stood back and watched the postgame celebration said it all. Plenty of people wondered about the fit when he left the NFL to become Michigan’s defensive coordinator. It took half a season or so for Martindale and Michigan’s players to figure each other out, but once they did, Michigan’s defense became the dominant unit it was capable of being.
“He realized he’s not working with 30-year-old men,” edge rusher TJ Guy said before the bowl game. “He’s working with young, developmental kids and young men. Taking us under his wing differently than he did some of his older players, he did a great job with that.”
That learning curve shouldn’t be an issue next season. Most of the players responsible for Tuesday’s performance are expected back, including edge rusher Derrick Moore, who’s due for his turn in the spotlight.
“When you’re out there with three first-rounders, they take all the damn sacks and make it difficult for you to get to the quarterback,” said Moore, who doubled his season sack total with two against Alabama. “Today, I just felt like it was my time to shine.”
3. As good as Michigan’s defense was against Ohio State and Alabama, imagine how those box scores would look without the last two minutes of the first half. Michigan gave up a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to the Buckeyes to end the first half and allowed its two biggest plays of the day to Alabama after an ill-advised timeout when the Crimson Tide had third-and-1 deep in their own territory.
Playing for one more possession with 37 seconds on the clock, Michigan gave up a 41-yard run to Milroe and a 40-yard completion to Germie Bernard. The timeout might have been defensible if Michigan had an explosive, quick-strike offense, but that’s not the world we live in. Even with Dominic Zvada’s range, the risk of calling that timeout easily outweighed the upside.
I’ve written about Sherrone Moore’s game management in the past, and that’s an area where he can grow as a coach. The Wolverines were fortunate to give up three points instead of seven, which was significant in a six-point game that ended with Alabama in field goal range.
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4. After Davis Warren left the game with an injury, Michigan made an interesting call to go with Alex Orji at quarterback over freshman Jadyn Davis. Moore’s explanation was that Orji practiced well leading up to the bowl game, and his running ability gave Michigan the best chance to possess the ball and work the clock. But with Orji already announcing plans to transfer, it felt like a missed opportunity to evaluate Davis and his place in Michigan’s quarterback competition.
Orji threw three passes, one of which was intercepted, and rushed for 9 yards. Not exactly highlight-reel stuff, though in fairness to Orji, he was on the field for a pivotal field goal drive in the fourth quarter. With the game on the line, it’s hard to be too critical of Moore for going with a quarterback who’s played in big games over a freshman who has yet to attempt a pass.
People talk about these non-Playoff bowls as glorified exhibitions, and in a lot of ways, that’s what they are. Although Michigan was shorthanded, Moore was coaching to win. Putting a quarterback on the field for the sake of evaluation wouldn’t have been fair to the players who suited up for the game.
There’s a separate question of whether Davis, a borderline top-100 recruit, should be capable of doing what Orji can do by this point in his freshman season. Since Davis’ season ended without any meaningful snaps, it’s hard to get a read on where he stands in the quarterback competition moving forward. That, in itself, is at least a partial answer.
5. On the other side of the spectrum, Michigan got a good, long look at freshman running back Jordan Marshall, who was the ReliaQuest Bowl MVP with 100 yards on 23 carries. Marshall gained some tough yards between the tackles, ran through contact and showed good vision to bounce a few runs to the outside.
〽️ 23 CAR
〽️ 100 YDSRelive freshman RB Jordan Marshall’s breakout @ReliaQuestBowl 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 performance 🤩#B1GFootball x @UMichFootball pic.twitter.com/YL8BfM2q4m
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) December 31, 2024
Marshall said Tony Alford, Michigan’s running backs coach, predicted the MVP performance before the game. It wasn’t a huge stretch: The Wolverines wanted to run the ball, and without Kalel Mullings or Donovan Edwards, Marshall was going to be the main beneficiary.
“It makes me sad, the guys in the room, Dono and them not being here,” Marshall said. “It’s a new leadership role for me and a new leadership role for a lot of the other guys to step up and be that guy. Dono was like, ‘It’s your time.’ It’s my time, and I just wanted to go out there and prove to the world that I can do this.”
Michigan’s decision to pursue Justice Haynes from Alabama in the transfer portal isn’t necessarily a reflection on Marshall, the top prospect in Michigan’s 2024 recruiting class. This is a two-back offense, and although Marshall and Haynes are similar in size, they should complement each other well. Michigan had dynamic tandems at running back in recent years with Edwards, Mullings, Blake Corum and Hassan Haskins, and Moore sees Marshall as part of the next iteration.
“He’s got a bright future,” Moore said, “He reminds me so much of Blake in the way he approaches his business and what he does off the field to take care of his body. You obviously saw how he runs. He’s a physical runner. He can make people miss. He can run you over. He obviously has that burst.”
6. Michigan also got a chance to evaluate freshman offensive lineman Andrew Sprague, who started at right tackle with Evan Link playing left tackle in place of Myles Hinton. To the naked eye, Michigan’s offensive line didn’t get a ton of push but created enough space for Marshall to have a productive day.
The sack that knocked Warren out of the game came when he was scrambling to the sideline; otherwise, the pass protection wasn’t a glaring issue. Adding another experienced tackle from the portal would make sense, but it won’t be a shock if Sprague is in the starting lineup when Michigan opens next season.
“When you rush for over 100 yards against Alabama, it’s good,” Moore said. “As far as the run game, there’s things we’ve always got to clean up, but it felt like we were getting the movement necessary to get the runs going.”
7. The timing of the first-quarter downpour couldn’t have worked out better for Michigan. The skies opened moments after Zvada hit a 45-yard field goal to put Michigan on top 3-0. In the monsoon-like conditions, the next snap bounced straight off of Milroe’s chest and popped up in the air for a turnover. The skies had already started to clear by the time Zvada trotted back on the field for his next attempt.
When the heavy stuff started to come down, Michigan’s sideline seemed to feed off of the elements. The mistakes snowballed for Milroe, who lost two fumbles and threw an interception in the first quarter. The Wolverines had a goal of being plus-two in the turnover margin, and when the margin was plus-three after one quarter, the belief took hold that Michigan could win the game.
“The coolest part was when it started to rain and the boys went crazy,” Moore said. “It was like a party. They love stuff like that.”
8. It was inevitable that the ReliaQuest Bowl would get subsumed into the Big Ten-SEC discourse and the debate about the 12-team Playoff field. Conference pride was low on the list of Michigan’s motivations, but for people who care about that sort of thing, Michigan scored a point for the Big Ten by knocking off an SEC opponent that was arguably the best team left out of the CFP.
“I come from the SEC, so I played them twice,” said defensive back Wesley Walker, who transferred from Tennessee. “Now I’m 2-1. I approached it like an opportunity — not really a challenge, but an opportunity to go out there and make plays and show what we can do as a defense.”
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Five years ago, Michigan and Alabama met under similar circumstances in the Citrus Bowl. That was a loaded Alabama team with Najee Harris, Mac Jones, Jerry Jeudy and DeVonta Smith that narrowly missed the CFP. Michigan had the lead at halftime, just as it did Tuesday, but Alabama turned on the jets in the second half and won 35-16.
Athletically, Alabama was on a different level from Michigan five years ago. That’s not the case anymore. The past two postseason meetings have gone down to the wire, with Michigan winning both. Recruiting rankings don’t guarantee success, but Michigan’s roster is getting another influx of talent for next season — starting, obviously, with five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood.
In this era of college football, any team can make a jump from eight wins to a spot in the CFP with the right offseason moves. With the way they ended the season, the Wolverines will be a trendy pick to make that kind of leap in 2025.
“It’s a big set-up for next year,” Marshall said. “You can see that with our two big wins. Alabama was supposed to be in the Playoff, this and that, but we came out here and showed everybody that we’re a team to be reckoned with.”
(Photo: Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty Images)
