COLUMBUS, Ohio — Michigan‘s J.J. McCarthy wasn’t the most decorated quarterback on the field entering the clash Saturday with Ohio State, and not even the biggest star on his own team.
He left Ohio Stadium as a Michigan legend, along with running back Donovan Edwards. McCarthy threw three long touchdown passes and added a scoring run early in the fourth quarter and Edwards broke off two long touchdown runs as No. 3 Michigan beat No. 2 Ohio State 45-23, its second straight upset in the rivalry. Playing almost the entire game without star running back Blake Corum, Michigan had five touchdowns of 45 yards or longer and four of 69 yards or longer to stun the Buckeyes.
“First-year starter, I don’t think there’s any first-year starter in the history of Michigan that has won 12 games, 12-0,” coach Jim Harbaugh said. “And in their first game, starting against Ohio State at Ohio State to play that great. Everybody on our team knows it.”
Michigan advanced to the Big Ten championship next week in Indianapolis, where it will face Purdue, Illinois or Iowa. The Wolverines (12-0) can win consecutive outright Big Ten titles for the first time since 1992.
They won at Ohio Stadium for the first time since 2000, which also represented their last winning streak in the rivalry (two games). Ohio State had won 29 consecutive Big Ten home games before Saturday, stretching back to the 2015 season.
Corum, Edwards and the ground game had carried the offense most of the season and questions were posed about the efficiency and capability of Michigan’s pass game. Entering this game, McCarthy ranked No. 88 among all FBS quarterbacks in total passing yards, while Corum had surged into the Heisman Trophy conversation.
Despite the questions and doubts from the outside, McCarthy said he always trusted his teammates and himself.
“I never let it creep in. I was always going to keep firing,” McCarthy said. “I always had 100% trust in every single one of my guys and in myself, and just to be able to do it today, it was so special. It was really so special and there’s still so many things that we need to do to work on and get better but it was just great to finally see it come to fruition.”
The matchup marked just the fourth time since 1935 that both Michigan and Ohio State entered their game without any losses or ties. Ohio State (11-1) came in 6-0 at home against Michigan when both teams held AP top-5 rankings.
Harbaugh, who lost his first five games to Ohio State, has now won consecutive contests. Ohio State coach Ryan Day fell to 1-2 against the Wolverines. The Buckeyes must wait until next week to learn whether they qualify for the College Football Playoff as an at-large selection, which they last did in 2016.
“That’s life at Ohio State,” Day said. “I certainly know what this game means to everybody, so when you lose, it all comes back to me, I’m the head coach. That’s what probably hurts the most.”
Both Day and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles felt comfortable with Ohio State’s first-half performance, noting that almost all of Michigan’s offense came on two long McCarthy touchdown passes.
“Nothing to get panicked about,” Knowles said. “Then, the second half, they hit a couple big runs. That’s just disheartening. I have to take the blame for that. I’ve just got to do a better job. It’s a story of explosive plays.”
After the Buckeyes cut their deficit to eight points midway through the fourth quarter, Michigan struck right back with a 75-yard Edwards touchdown run. Edwards tacked on an 85-yard touchdown run as Ohio State fans headed for the exits.
“It was a missed tackle on the first play, then got beat on a double-move on the second play, and then there were obviously some misfits in the run game,” Day said. “Obviously, the first thing we need to do to win games like this is play great defense. Other than a few plays in the first half, I felt like we did, but not in the second half.”
Michigan knew it needed to beat Ohio State to return to the conference championship game. McCarthy acknowledged the win’s importance, but also stressed that the season isn’t over.
During Michigan’s postgame news conference, he took his hat, adorned with Big Ten East champions on the front, and threw it down on the table. He was excited about the win, but said the team isn’t done yet and that their season goals are still ahead of them.
“It was great, obviously to get a win, every win’s great and especially this one, but at the end of the day, this one doesn’t even matter,” McCarthy said. “This doesn’t matter. The job’s not finished, we have so much more to do and so many places to go, so, the job’s not finished and we’re ready to get after it.”
Purdue can clinch the Big Ten’s West Division with a win over rival Indiana later Saturday. If Purdue loses, Illinois can clinch the division by beating Northwestern. If both Purdue and Illinois lose, Iowa will advance for the second straight season.
Michigan’s defense held Ohio State to three points in the second half and just 47 yards on eight plays in the third quarter. Ohio State punted on its first three second-half possessions, including twice from near midfield.
After converting its first four third-down opportunities, Ohio State finished 5-of-16.
“You have to play the field-position game,” Day said. “Fourth-and-5 around midfield, if it was fourth-and-3, fourth-and-2, maybe you take a shot there. I didn’t feel like we were desperate at that point, so I felt like that was the right thing to do.
“But you’re not in those situations if you’re converting on third downs, and we didn’t do that today.”
McCarthy completed three of his first nine pass attempts but then began finding gaps in an Ohio State defense that had allowed only two passing touchdowns of 45 yards or longer all season before Saturday. Midway through the second quarter, he found Cornelius Johnson, who beat cornerback Cameron Brown and raced for a 69-yard touchdown.
The sophomore then found Johnson for a 75-yard touchdown and helped Michigan regain the lead in the third quarter with a 45-yard scoring pass to freshman tight end Colston Loveland. McCarthy became the first player with three passing touchdowns and a rushing TD against Ohio State since Clemson‘s Tajh Boyd in the 2014 Orange Bowl.
“He’s impressive, just manages things well, throws on the run, makes plays stretch out even longer,” Knowles said. “And he can run the ball when he has to.”
McCarthy had operated a mostly conservative passing plan in his first season as the starter, and Michigan came in with only one passing touchdown of 50 yards or longer. He came in averaging only 177.5 passing yards per game, which ranked 11th in the Big Ten and well behind Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud (271.9 YPG), who remained a top Heisman candidate.
Stroud passed for 349 yards and two touchdowns but struggled to attack downfield other than a 42-yard TD to top receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. late in the first half. He threw two interceptions in the final five minutes of what likely was his final game at Ohio Stadium.
“People are going to say I never won The Game, and I understand, people are going to say I never won the Big Ten championship, I understand,” Stroud said. “When it comes to that, I just have to eat it. It’s life. Nothing’s ever been easy for me.”
Stroud emphasized that the Michigan game wouldn’t define him or his team, but noted how much Ohio State had focused on it after falling to the Wolverines last season. He hasn’t decided if he would play in a bowl game if the Buckeyes fall short of the CFP.
“I tried to do everything I possibly could, but it’s on me, this game is really on me, I’ve got to do more,” Stroud said. “This is the one that we really wanted [after] 365 days of everybody laughing and talking. We started out strong. Just laid an egg in the second half.”
Both teams played shorthanded at running back. Corum, who sustained a left knee injury in last week’s win over Illinois, left the game after two carries on Michigan’s first possession and did not return. Michigan had only 10 rushing yards in the first half.
Ohio State starter TreVeyon Henderson sat out with a lower leg injury, while Miyan Williams returned from injury but was not overly effective. The Buckeyes leaned on Chip Trayanum, a linebacker who played running back at Arizona State but had only one carry for Ohio State before Saturday. Trayanum finished with 83 yards on 14 carries.
The Wolverines were held to just 10 yards rushing in the first half, but Edwards exploded in the second half with 170 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, which was the most by a Power 5 player since Jamaal Charles did it for Texas in 2007 against Nebraska.
Edwards also became the first player in Michigan history to record multiple 75-yard touchdown runs in a single game and his final tally of 216 rushing yards is the second-most by a Michigan player against the Buckeyes all time, behind Tim Biakabutuka’s 313 yards in 1995.
“Our team really paid the price and they really put in all the work. And that’s what they did, just the hard work, the sweat every other game,” Harbaugh said. “To get to this game and get this opportunity, and we were thankful to be where we were, right where we wanted to be and then came down here, players were all focused and determined to win.”
OCEANPORT, N.J. — Journalism launched a dramatic rally to win the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Saturday at Monmouth Park.
It was Journalism’s first race since the Triple Crown. He was the only colt to contest all three legs, winning the Preakness while finishing second to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
Heavily favored at 2-5 odds, Journalism broke poorly under jockey Umberto Rispoli and wound up trailing the early leaders. He kicked into gear rounding the final turn to find Gosger and Goal Oriented locked in a dogfight for the lead. It appeared one of them would be the winner until Journalism roared down the center of the track to win by a half-length.
“You feel like you’re on a diesel,” Rispoli said. “He’s motoring and motoring. You never know when he’s going to take off. To do what he did today again, it’s unbelievable.”
Gosger held on for second, a neck ahead of Goal Oriented.
The Haskell victory was Journalism’s sixth in nine starts for Southern California-based trainer Michael McCarthy, and earned the colt a berth in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
DOVER, Del. — Chase Elliott took advantage of heavy rain at Dover Motor Speedway to earn the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.
Elliott and the rest of the field never got to turn a scheduled practice or qualifying lap on Saturday because of rain that pounded the concrete mile track. Dover is scheduled to hold its first July race since the track’s first one in 1969.
Elliott has two wins and 10 top-five finishes in 14 career races at Dover.
Logano is set to become the youngest driver in NASCAR history with 600 career starts.
Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. He will top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months.
The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Reddick vs. Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover.
The winners face off next week at Indianapolis. Reddick is the betting favorite to win it all, according to Sportsbook.
DOVER, Del. — NASCAR race team owner Denny Hamlin remained undeterred in the wake of another setback in court, vowing “all will be exposed” in the scheduled December trial as part of 23XI Racing’s federal antitrust suit against the auto racing series.
A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to continue racing with charters while they battle NASCAR in court, meaning their six cars will race as open entries this weekend at Dover, next week at Indianapolis and perhaps longer than that in a move the teams say would put them at risk of going out of business.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell denied the teams’ bid for a temporary restraining order, saying they will make races over the next couple of weeks and they won’t lose their drivers or sponsors before his decision on a preliminary injunction.
Bell left open the possibility of reconsidering his decision if things change over the next two weeks.
After this weekend, the cars affected may need to qualify on speed if 41 entries are listed – a possibility now that starting spots have opened.
The case has a Dec. 1 trial date, but the two teams are fighting to be recognized as chartered for the current season, which has 16 races left. A charter guarantees one of the 40 spots in the field each week, but also a base amount of money paid out each week.
“If you want answers, you want to understand why all this is happening, come Dec. 1, you’ll get the answers that you’re looking for,” Hamlin said Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway. “All will be exposed.”
23XI, which is co-owned by retired NBA great Michael Jordan, and FRM filed their federal suit against NASCAR last year after they were the only two organizations out of 15 to reject NASCAR’s extension offer on charters.
Jordan and FRM owner Bob Jenkins won an injunction to recognize 23XI and FRM as chartered for the season, but the ruling was overturned on appeal earlier this month, sending the case back to Bell.
Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, co-owns 23XI with Jordan and said they were prepared to send Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst to the track each week as open teams. They sought the restraining order Monday, claiming that through discovery they learned NASCAR planned to immediately begin the process of selling the six charters which would put “plaintiffs in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business.”
Hamlin said none of the setbacks have made him second-guess the decision to file the lawsuit.
“Dec. 1 is all that matters. Mark your calendar,” Hamlin said. “I’d love to be doing other things. I’ve got a lot going on. When I get in the car (today), nothing else is going to matter other than that. I always give my team 100%. I always prepare whether I have side jobs, side hustles, more kids, that all matters, but I always give my team all the time that they need to make sure that when I step in, I’m 100% committed.”
Reddick, who has a clause that allows him to become a free agent if the team loses its charter, declined comment Saturday on all questions connected to his future and the lawsuit. Hamlin also declined to comment on Reddick’s future with 23XI Racing.
Reddick, one of four drivers left in NASCAR’s $1 million In-season Challenge, was last year’s regular-season champion and raced for the Cup Series championship in the season finale. But none of the six drivers affected by the court ruling are locked into this year’s playoffs.
Making the field won’t be an issue this weekend at Dover as fewer than the maximum 40 cars are entered. But should 41 cars show up anywhere this season, someone slow will be sent home and that means lost revenue and a lost chance to win points in the standings.
“Nothing changes from my end, obviously, and nothing changes from inside the shop,” Front Row Motorsports driver Zane Smith said. “There’s not typically even enough cars to worry about transferring in.”
Smith, 24th in the standings and someone who would likely need a win to qualify for NASCAR’s playoffs, said he stood behind Jenkins in his acrimonious legal fight that has loomed over the stock car series for months.
“I leave all that up to them,” Smith said, “but my job is to go get the 38 the best finish I can.”