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— The question posed about TCU by Michigan linebacker Junior Colson at one of the midweek media availabilities leading into the Fiesta Bowl says it all: «They’re in the Big 12, right?»
Discounted all season, beginning with a projected seventh-place finish in the preseason conference poll, the disrespect reached a crescendo leading into the College Football Playoff semifinal — and the Horned Frogs were paying attention.
«For us, yeah, we definitely talked about it. We saw it,» said junior offensive lineman Marcus Williams.
«It was really disrespectful to us. We felt that we were in this game and everyone else counted us out, and for them to go on national television and say they didn’t even know what conference we were in, that they were going to roll over us, basically, we took it as disrespect. And we decided we were just going to come out and play our game like we always do. We’re going to do what we do regardless of what they talk about.»
Favored by more than a touchdown, the Wolverines came into the Fiesta Bowl overly confident in their chances of advancing into a national championship against the winner of the Peach Bowl between Georgia and Ohio State. Instead, they ended up on the wrong side of a 51-45 loss that was one of the biggest upsets in playoff history.
But looking past TCU will give Michigan nightmares all offseason. The Wolverines were supposed to be the bigger, tougher, better team. Not quite. They were expected to dominate the line of scrimmage; they did anything but. TCU was supposed to be smothered by one of the nation’s best defenses; the Horned Frogs put up 488 yards of offense overall on 6.9 yards per play, Michigan’s worst performance on the season.
«Throughout this whole year, we’ve had teams even in our conference that said that we’re better than them, we’re going to roll,» said junior offensive lineman Brandon Coleman. «What we’ve done good is just focus on ourselves. We know that if we play to the best of our abilities we can win any game that we play.»
Yes, TCU is in the Big 12, which had previously flopped in every playoff appearance. But don’t let history fool you. By pushing back against the Wolverines’ physical play and winning yet another shootout decided by a single possession, TCU will head into the national championship game with a statement-making win that belies the lack of faith in the Frogs’ chances on this stage.
