Michigan fell short in the Fiesta Bowl to TCU and Heisman-runner up Max Duggan, 51-45, the highest scoring game in Fiesta Bowl history.
— It was the scenario J.J. McCarthy has dreamed of since he was a boy — a one-possession game in the final minute of play with a national championship berth on the line.
But the drive stalled before it got started. A 5-yard run, an incomplete pass, a false start and another incomplete pass made it fourth-and-10 for Michigan on their own 25, with 35 seconds to play.
Michigan football never truly ran its final play. The snap was premature and hit McCarthy in the stomach before he was ready for it. The Wolverines tried to pick it up and lateral to move the sticks, but Colston Loveland was tackled to end the game.
«It was a brain fart, I didn’t have my guys back,» said Michigan’s Rimington and Outland Trophy winner, center Olusegun Oluwatimi. «It cost us.»
«It was loud as (expletive),» interjected Zak Zinter in defense of Oluwatimi from the adjacent locker.
Michigan (13-1), which spent all season clawing for a shot to get to the national championship game came up one win short in the College Football Playoff semifinal, falling to TCU (13-1) and Heisman Trophy runner-up Max Duggan, 51-45, the highest scoring game in Fiesta Bowl history.
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McCarthy finished 20 of 34 passing with a career-high 343 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He added 10 carries for 52 yards and a touchdown. Duggan went 14 of 29 for 225 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions for TCU.
Michigan allowed a season worst 51 points and 527 yards.
«We heard all week about how we were going to get lined up (against) and run through,» said TCU coach Sonny Dykes. «So I think the guys heard that.»
It’s the end of one of the best season’s in U-M’s history; its first 13-win season ever and the first back-to-back Big Ten titles since 1991-92.
Michigan’s calling card in 2022 was its physicality, especially in the run game. But in the CFP semifinal, the Wolverines were the ones who caught a one-two combo in the first half before TCU delivered the haymaker late. U-M was on the wrong end of almost all the big plays early: a fourth-and-goal trick play gone wrong, a costly pick-6 and a fumble into the end zone from the 1-yard line.
«We beat ourselves out there,» Zinter said. «Adversity hit and I’m proud of this team the way the guys were able to respond. But yeah, we needed to respond on some of those (chances) we had early in the game.»
After trailing by as much as 18, the Wolverines got within five midway through the third quarter when Ronnie Bell caught a flea-flicker touchdown pass from J.J. McCarthy.
But after a TCU touchdown made it a 12-point game, McCarthy threw his second pick-6 of the game; he never saw TCU linebacker Dee Winters who jumped the slant pattern and returned it 29 yards for the score with 2:52 to play in the third quarter and a 41-22 deficit.
Then the Wolverines put together a three-play, 69-yard drive capped by a 20-yard McCarthy run with 1:47 to play in the third.
