GLENDALE, Ariz. — Sometimes, it’s difficult to look at the silver linings, especially after an emotional loss. But certainly, the season was not a disaster for Michigan football in 2022.
Look, the loss to TCU in the College Football Playoff was beyond disappointing. Events that started with the botched Colston Loveland pass on the goal line were persistent and pervasive. Michigan should have walked away with points, but didn’t. After a three-and-out by TCU, J.J. McCarthy threw a pick six — the first of two in the game — and the game of yakety sax was on. The Kalel Mullings goal-line fumble just as it appeared that Michigan was getting on the board was further indication that it wasn’t the Wolverines’ day.
Yet, the maize and blue kept fighting and had the ball in their hands and a chance to win with time dwindling. It was a battle, yet uncharacteristic mistakes — both from the coaching staff and the players — keep rearing up.
What makes matters worse is Georgia proved eminently beatable in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, indicating this truly could have been Michigan’s year had it not decided to get cute and had not made mistakes it usually doesn’t make.
However, the loss in the College Football Playoff, no matter how disappointing and maddening, does not define what was a successful season overall.
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Of the many stated goals that the Wolverines had this season, the final ones — winning the College Football Playoff semifinal and national championship — go unfulfilled. Yet, Michigan wildly exceeded expectations from a national perspective this year.
Thought by the media to be behind Ohio State, Penn State, and — to some — Michigan State, Michigan beat all three teams — convincingly. It won its second-starlight Big Ten Championship, and the nucleus of the team from this year is returning. It managed to win those final two conference games despite the best players on each side of the ball being severely limited or unavailable. The Wolverines won more games in 2022 than they ever have in a single season.
None of this is to say that, for fans, the ending of what appeared to be a season so promising that Michigan could have made — and won — its first national championship in 25 years isn’t beyond disheartening. It’s sad, of course, and fans should want the team to strive for more. And that’s good news: The expectations are no longer just beat Ohio State, win the conference and make the College Football Playoff. The expectations are officially higher. And that’s a good thing.
But even as the expectations for this program are rising and as the loss to TCU is disappointing, don’t lose perspective on the season that was, and the accomplishments that carried Michigan to this point in the first place. Because, unless fans have a short memory, it wasn’t that long ago that none of these accomplishments seemed remotely possible.
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