The No. 1 Wolverines (14-0) will face the No. 2 Huskies (14-0) in the College Football Playoff National Championship game on Jan. 8 at NRG Stadium in Houston. This year’s title game — the last in a four-team playoff before the field expands to 12 for the 2024 season — will feature two undefeated squads making their first appearance in the championship game in the CFP era.
Galvanized by accusations of an elaborate sign-stealing scandal that became the biggest story of the season, Michigan has found ways to overcome obstacles and win — a consistent trait that propelled them to a 27-20 overtime victory against SEC champion Alabama on Monday night in the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential.
“It was do or die,” Michigan offensive tackle Trevor Keegan said. “We’ve been through some things. We’ve had to overcome obstacles and adversity. People can say it’s adversity. People can saw we cheated. But I really don’t give a f—. It was adversity, and this team relied on each other, and it showed that last quarter and in overtime.”
After losing in the semifinals during each of the previous two campaigns, Michigan earned its first CFP win.
It’s also the last time Washington will represent the Pac-12, as the league has been decimated by realignment and the Huskies will be joining the Big Ten in 2024.
With Alabama’s loss, this will be the first CFP national championship game since Ohio State faced Oregon in the inaugural 2014 season that won’t feature an SEC team.
Instead, it will highlight two squads with a chance to become only the sixth team in major college football history to finish 15-0 or better.
Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh: Heading into the 2021 season, Harbaugh’s future in Ann Arbor was tenuous, as he entered that fall 0-5 against rival Ohio State and without any CFP appearances. He has since flipped the script, beating the Buckeyes three straight seasons to win the Big Ten and advance to the CFP. This was the first time, though, that Harbaugh had won a semifinal game, snapping his six-game losing streak in bowls. With the victory against Alabama, Harbaugh has a chance to win a national title for his alma mater, where he played quarterback from 1983 to 1986.
Harbaugh, in the second year of a five-year contract with Michigan, can’t escape the speculation surrounding his future with the program. There are still two separate and ongoing NCAA investigations — one for alleged recruiting violations and another for an alleged sign-stealing scheme — that resulted in Harbaugh being suspended for half of the 2023 regular season. There’s also Harbaugh’s past flirtations with the NFL. Michigan’s administration wants to keep Harbaugh and has made that clear; it’s up to him to agree to it. Would winning a national title influence his decision?
Washington’s Kalen DeBoer: In only his second season as the Huskies’ head coach, DeBoer has led the program to 21 straight victories — the longest active win streak in the FBS — and the school’s first appearance in a national championship game. It’s a far climb from DeBoer’s humble beginnings as head coach of his alma mater, the small University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota — but it’s the same goal as it was then, when he won as many NAIA national titles (three) and had as many undefeated seasons (three) as he had losses.
DeBoer was 67-3 overall at Sioux Falls, including a 17-2 record in the playoffs. DeBoer’s ascension from NAIA to FCS to the Group of 5 and ultimately the sport’s biggest stage has spanned over two decades, seven schools and three head-coaching jobs, including at Washington. The longtime relationships he has developed with his staff, including Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, and the staff continuity have had a direct correlation to the Huskies’ success. Washington’s entire full-time coaching staff remained intact from the 2022 season — a rarity in today’s coaching carousel postseason — and DeBoer has been the glue.
How they got here
Michigan: Despite their head coach being suspended for six of the 12 regular-season games, the Wolverines reached the national title game because of their unity, talent and acting head coach Sherrone Moore. With Harbaugh suspended for the final three games of the regular season — versus the most important and most difficult opponents on the schedule — Moore guided the Wolverines to wins against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State. The “Michigan vs. Everybody” merch and mentality combined with what could be the program’s best team in decades resulted in a perfect season that now includes a statement win against the sport’s most accomplished program and coach. Michigan’s aggressive defense sacked Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe six times, and the Wolverines overcame a seven-point deficit in the fourth quarter to prevail in overtime.
The CFP selection committee considered Michigan a top-four team all season, but it didn’t bump the Wolverines into the top spot until Selection Day, after then-No. 1 Georgia lost to Alabama in the SEC title game. No team in the CFP race has ever faced such serious allegations of cheating, but the CFP maintained its stance that as long as a team was eligible to participate in a bowl game, it could be ranked by the committee. Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel was one of the 13 committee members, but he recused himself from voting when Michigan was in consideration. Michigan has now won 14 games in a season for the first time in school history.
Washington: This is a team that has been fueled by its underdog status and perceived lack of respect. The Huskies’ 36-33 win against Oregon on Oct. 14 signaled they should be considered the Pac-12’s leading contender for the CFP this season, but not everyone was convinced they were top-four material. The selection committee was unimpressed with ugly wins against Arizona State and Stanford, and it questioned the Huskies’ defense. It wasn’t until November — after Washington reeled off consecutive wins against USC, Utah and Oregon State to hit the 11-0 mark — that the Huskies cracked the committee’s top four.
Washington was still a 9.5-point underdog against Oregon in the Pac-12 title game, which the Huskies won. Washington was again the betting underdog against Texas — another lower-ranked opponent with a loss — in Monday’s semifinal. Again, though, Washington’s offense had the upper hand, propelled by Heisman Trophy runner-up Michael Penix Jr. This time, the signal-caller took advantage of a Texas pass defense that has now allowed six of its opponents to throw for over 300 yards this season.
Michigan: RB Blake Corum. When starting right guard Zak Zinter suffered a season-ending leg injury in the Wolverines’ win against Ohio State, the team lost its top run-blocker. That was evident in the Big Ten title game against Iowa, as none of Corum’s 16 carries went longer than 6 yards. That wasn’t the case against Alabama, as Corum registered 118 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns. His 56 career rushing touchdowns are the most in school history.
Washington: WR Rome Odunze. It’s hard to separate Odunze from Ja’Lynn Polk, as they represent one of four 1,000-yard receiving tandems in the FBS, but Odunze has been particularly clutch. He entered the semifinal against Texas with 82% of his receptions having gone for first downs or touchdowns.
Matchup to watch
Michigan’s defensive line vs. Washington’s offensive line. Michigan has recorded 16 sacks in its past four games, including four against Iowa and six against Alabama. Michigan pushed its way into the Crimson Tide’s backfield and limited their running game to 43 yards in the first half while sacking Milroe five times.
Entering Monday, Penix had completed just 41% of his passes when outside of the pocket. Washington, though, only gave up 11 sacks all season, and the Longhorns were unable to get to Penix. If Michigan is going to find a way to win, it has to find its way into the backfield again.
Last meeting
Sept. 11, 2021: Michigan 31, Washington 10. Washington has seen Corum before. In 2021, he ran for a 67-yard touchdown to give Michigan a double-digit lead in the second quarter. Washington finished 4-8 that year under former coach Jimmy Lake, while Harbaugh finished 12-2 with a loss to Georgia in the CFP semifinals.
X factors
Michigan’s special teams. The Wolverines muffed a punt in the first quarter against Alabama, missed an extra point in the second quarter because of a botched snap and missed a field goal wide left in the fourth quarter.
Washington defensive end Bralen Trice. For the second straight season, Trice was named the team’s MVP on defense. He sacked Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers twice on Monday night and was equally as disruptive against Oregon this season, posting four tackles and a pass breakup in the Pac-12 title game.
All but one NHL team will end the season on a bitter note, as there can be only one Stanley Cup champion. But on Saturday, we could have our very first playoff elimination of the 2025 playoffs.
The Ottawa Senators are on the brink heading into Saturday’s game. Despite taking the heavily favored Toronto Maple Leafs to overtime twice in a row, the Atlantic Division champs have scored the game winner each time in the extra session. Can the Senators win one in front of the home crowd to extend the series to five games?
Elsewhere in the Atlantic bracket, the Florida Panthers won both of the first two games in the Tampa Bay Lightning‘s building. Will this be a shorter series than many expected? And out West, the Minnesota Wild will look to extend their shocking series lead over the Vegas Golden Knights, and the Clash of the Western Titans continues in the Centennial State, as the Colorado Avalanche look to even things up with the Dallas Stars.
Having served his suspension for performance-enhancing substances, Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad is eligible to return for this game. The well-rounded blueliner skated 23:30 per game during the regular season, scoring three goals and 30 assists in 56 games.
The Panthers have another defenseman who has been delivering this postseason; Nate Schmidt scored a goal in Games 1 and 2, becoming the first defenseman in franchise history with two game-winning goals in a single postseason — and they’re only two games in!
All eyes will be on the status of Aleksander Barkov, who was knocked out of Game 2 via a hit from Brandon Hagel; Hagel was assessed a five-minute major penalty for the play and suspended for Game 3.
Tampa Bay needs its stars and its scoring depth to get rolling to charge back into this series, with just two goals total in two games. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has not been up to his typical, superhuman standards thus far, allowing seven goals on 39 shots (.821 save percentage).
In Stanley Cup playoff history, teams that start 2-0 in a best-of-seven series have won 86% of the time; that number rises to 98% if a team starts 3-0.
If nothing else, this series has been a unique one from a starting-time perspective; each of the first four games will have had a different scheduled start time once the puck is dropped Saturday — 10 p.m. ET for Game 1, 11 p.m. ET for Game 2, 9 p.m. ET for Game 3 and 4 p.m. ET for this one.
Most observers didn’t believe the Wild were going to win this series. Nor did many predict that Minnesota players would be all over the scoring leaderboard midway through Round 1. Kirill Kaprizov is tied for the playoff scoring lead with Adrian Kempe and Cam Fowler (seven points), and is tied with teammate Matt Boldy for the goal-scoring lead, with four. The current playoff assists leader? Wild blueliner Jared Spurgeon.
This has been an uncharacteristically rough opening round for Adin Hill. He’s allowed 10 goals on 57 shots, generating a .825 save percentage and 3.78 goals-against average. Those rates were .932 and 2.17, respectively, in Hill’s 16 games played during the Knights’ 2023 Stanley Cup run.
While “Playoff” Tomas Hertl has shown up this series — to the tune of two goals and an assist — some of the Knights’ other offensive standbys have been quiet. Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev — who combined for 212 points in the regular season — all have a goose egg thus far.
The Maple Leafs have been led by a consistently strong performance of their Core Four of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares; the quartet leads Toronto in scoring through three games. Perhaps a narrative is being rewritten before our eyes, after years of playoff disappointment for that group?
One specific area where Toronto has been dominant is the power play; their 55.6% conversion rate is tops in the league this postseason (and makes up, somewhat, for a penalty kill that is just 77.8% effective).
The Senators have had five different goal scorers this series, including Brady Tkachuk, who has been giving his all in his first playoff experience. Ottawa’s captain has two goals — and four penalty minutes, as he has kept himself in the mix whenever the action has gotten rowdier.
Will Ottawa stick with Linus Ullmark in goal for Game 4? The veteran has an .815 save percentage through the first three games — and an .874 mark in his postseason career.
Game 3 was all about the return of Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog after an absence of 1,032 days. Landeskog skated 13:16 in the game, but did not record a point or a shot on goal.
While other teams are generating historic numbers on the power play this postseason, the Avs have struggled to a 15.4% conversion rate (fourth worst). This is in stark contrast to the regular season, when the Avs’ 24.8% rate was eighth in the league.
Tyler Seguin‘s overtime goal sealed the deal for Dallas in Game 3. it was just the second OT game winner in his career, after a span of 13 years (April 22, 2012).
The other good news on the Dallas front is that Mikko Rantanen — former Av, who was acquired on March 7 — finally picked up his first point of the series, an assist on the OT game winner. Have the floodgates opened?
Arda’s three stars from Friday night
1. The Oilers-Kings series LA up 2-1 | 30 goals in three games
The first three games have been bonkers. Game 1 almost had an all-timer comeback, then the Kings rocked Edmonton in Game 2, while Game 3 saw multiple lead changes, quick back-to-back goals, a failed coaches challenge by L.A. on an Edmonton goal — which led to an Oilers’ power-play goal to take the lead. Just incredible.
Nemec scored the overtime winner in Newark to win the game for the Devils over the Canes — and avoid going down 0-3 in the series. This came after stints in the AHL this season, and being a healthy scratch earlier in the series.
“Goal” Caufield had a goal and an assist in Montreal’s emphatic 6-3 win over Washington in Game 3.
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Cole Caufield scores with a one-timer for Montreal
Cole Caufield scores on a one-timer to give the Canadiens the lead late in the second period.
The Bell Centre was electric for the Canadiens’ first home game in quite some time — and the fans were sent home quite happy on Friday night after a wild game. The two teams traded goals through most of the first two periods before Cole Caufield put Montreal up one at the end of the second — and a brawl ensued that spilled into the Washington bench. Although Alex Ovechkin scored 2:39 into the third to tie the game 3-3, the Habs poured it on thereafter with three straight goals, sending the “Olé!” chants to unforeseen decibel levels. Recap.
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Christian Dvorak helps Canadiens regain the lead
Christian Dvorak finds the net in the third period to help the Canadiens to retake the lead vs. the Capitals.
Down 0-2 in the series, the Devils went up 2-0 in their first game back home, on goals from Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer. But a pair of third-period, power-play goals — from Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho — knotted things up, and the game went to overtime. Scoreless after one extra period, the game was ended by Simon Nemec, the second overall pick in the 2022 draft, who had been a healthy scratch previously in the series. Recap.
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Simon Nemec’s wrister wins it in 2OT for the Devils
Simon Nemec finds the winning goal as the Devils outlast the Hurricanes in double overtime.
It takes a full-team effort to get up off the proverbial canvas when down 0-2 in a series, and that’s just what the Oilers got on Friday. Ten different Oilers hit the scoresheet in this one, including superstars like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard, as well players further down the lineup like Connor Brown and Evander Kane. The Oilers also made the switch in goal to Calvin Pickard for this game, and he responded with 24 saves on 28 shots. On the Kings’ side, Adrian Kempe had his fourth goal and fifth assist of the playoffs, putting him into first in the points race and tied for first in the goals race. Recap.
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Connor McDavid’s empty-netter secures Game 3 for the Oilers
Connor McDavid notches the empty-netter to secure a Game 3 win for the Oilers.
NEWARK, N.J. — Simon Nemec hasn’t had an ideal start to his NHL career. But in Game 3 of the New Jersey Devils‘ Stanley Cup playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes, he finally had his career highlight.
The 21-year-old defenseman scored an unassisted goal at 2:36 of double overtime on Friday night to give the Devils a 3-2 win and new life, cutting the Hurricanes’ series lead to 2-1.
In the process, Nemec, the No. 2 pick in the 2022 NHL draft, had the most impactful moment of his pro career with his first playoff goal.
“I was so happy,” he said. “Amazing feeling. It’s been a tough season for me, and that’s a really big win for us.”
A native of Slovakia, Nemec spent his first season after the draft in the American Hockey League. He split time between the AHL and the Devils in Year 2, thrust into action because of injuries to the New Jersey defense. He split time between the NHL and the minors again this season. Nemec has played 87 games in the NHL, with five goals and 18 assists while skating to a minus-17.
He was a frequent healthy scratch in New Jersey, including Game 1 on Sunday, and his lackluster play caused many to wonder if Nemec would live up to his lofty draft position. Nemec was last on the Devils in goals above replacement at minus-8.7, according to Evolving Hockey.
Thanks to injuries to defensemen Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon, Nemec was called upon in Game 2 against Carolina and was back in the lineup for Game 3, in which the Devils lost defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic to injury after just 10 shifts. That injury, plus the multiple overtimes, meant massive increases in ice time for veterans such as Brian Dumoulin (36:29) and Brett Pesce (32:25), as well as more responsibility for Nemec.
“You just need guys to step up at the right times,” Dumoulin said. “He knew he was going to be going out there, we’re going to be relying on him, and we needed him. You could see that he took that moment. He wasn’t scared of it, and he took the reins of it.”
Nemec said the overtime goal, which beat Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen (34 saves), was the kind of boost he needs in his career.
“Yeah, it helps me a lot,” he said. “I feel like my confidence is back the last couple games. I’m just trying to play my game and do this stuff. I have to play offense a little bit, too, so my confidence is higher, and I just feel good about myself.”
Devils coach Sheldon Keefe admitted that he dreamed about defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler, who returned to the lineup for the first time since Feb. 4 and played 27:09, being the Game 3 hero.
“But if I was really thinking, I would have said, ‘Wouldn’t this be something if the young guy who just stepped up so big for us here, if he ended the game?'” Keefe said.
The message the coach gave his team in the overtime intermissions was one of aggressiveness. That apparently wasn’t lost on Nemec.
“We’ve got to go win this hockey game. We don’t want to sit back, we don’t want this game to go on forever,” Keefe said. “Credit Nemo with doing that. To have the mindset to do it, not just sitting back and conserving energy. He was on the front foot. You love to see it and love to see him get rewarded.”
Game 4 of the series will be Sunday afternoon in New Jersey.