Jim Harbaugh’s tenure at Michigan was looking a bit murky with no victories over rival Ohio State and no bowl victories since his first season on the job.
However, Year 7 has been the breakthrough season, and No. 2 Michigan will make its College Football Playoff debut when it faces No. 3 Georgia in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 31 at Miami Gardens, Fla.
The Wolverines (12-1) got that first win over Ohio State in the Harbaugh era by a 42-27 score and then steamrolled Iowa 42-3 in the Big Ten title game to land the national semifinal spot against the Bulldogs (12-1).
The winner will face either top-seeded Alabama or fourth-seeded Cincinnati in the national championship game on Jan. 10.
“The goal wasn’t to get this far, right?” Wolverines running back Blake Corum said. “The goal was to keep going. So our focus is the same. The goal is the same.”
Michigan features the top defensive player in the nation, defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. Yet how the offense fares against the ferocious Georgia defense might be the key element.
The Wolverines rank 12th nationally in scoring offense at 37.7 points per game and topped 30 points on 10 occasions. But Georgia leads the nation in scoring defense (9.5 points allowed per game) and ranks second in total defense (254.4 yards per contest).
The Bulldogs gave up 10 or fewer points nine times, pitching three shutouts.
In fact, the Bulldogs allowed nearly one third of their point total — 41 of 124 — in a 17-point loss to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference title game.
Though Georgia extended its bowl streak to a nation-leading 25 in a row, the bitter loss to the Crimson Tide is serving as motivation.
“It is new life, it is one game and you have to win to advance,” outside linebacker Nolan Smith said of the national semifinal. “A lot of people watch Georgia…
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