Everybody said it, to the point that the warning took its place in line behind death and taxes. Michigan will face adversity this season.

The Wolverines faced it, all right. They stared into its eyes, and those eyes stared back, blood red, peering out of the closet into a dimly lit room. Adorned in a hockey mask and bearing (fittingly) a scythe, the demon ‘Husker swung at Michigan’s undefeated record for all it was worth.

More than 87,000 looked on, howling for the head of the nation’s No. 9 team to roll. When the clock turned 00:00, they stared blankly out of a frigid maze, like Jack Nicholson at the end of “The Shining.”

Frost-bitten again.

Michigan’s gutsy, hair-raising, at times mortifying, at times exhilarating 32-29 triumph in Lincoln proved just what the cardiologist didn’t order. And yet it answered the question of the hour for the now 6-0 Wolverines.

Would they fold when things began going against them?

Oh, the adversity arrived in an avalanche.

Michigan’s 13-0 halftime lead might have given some comfort. The Cornhuskers managed 133 first-half yards, 78 on their very first drive, coming away empty-handed when head coach Scott Frost opted to eschew a field goal for an ill-fated touchdown attempt.

Surely, this would wind up 30-13, or some similar score, the Wolverines continuing to bottle up quarterback Adrian Martinez and the ‘Huskers.

Guess again.

Martinez torched Michigan’s defense in the second half, putting 29 points on the board in 30 minutes. He produced Michigan’s first deficit of the year, and stood one drive away from hand-delivering U-M’s first defeat.

His 291 yards and three touchdowns passing had the Wolverines reeling. One more drive, and the home crowd would explode like a harvester rigged with dynamite by cornfield-lurking terrorists.

It didn’t happen. The Wolverines wouldn’t let it happen.

After Martinez bolted in for the touchdown to make it 29-26 Nebraska with only 7:08 to play, the Wolverines didn’t fold. They flew — literally.

Redshirt sophomore Hassan Haskins bolted away on a 50-yard run, complete with a soaring leap clean over a Nebraska defender. The superhuman elevation set up junior placekicker Jake Moody’s game-tying field goal with three minutes left.

That didn’t feel like enough — not the way Martinez had turned Michigan’s 30-minute shutout into a 57-minute shredding. Surely, he’d heave the ‘Huskers right back downfield for the game-winner.

Forget that. The Michigan defense stood Martinez up like an overstuffed scarecrow, and senior safety Brad Hawkins pilfered the pigskin — and the game — right away from him.

Hawkins’ strip and scoop set up Moody’s 39-yard game-winner with 1:24 remaining. The battered but not beaten defense did the rest.

Say whatever else you want, and people will say plenty. Michigan won, with its back against the silo. The Wolverines stand 6-0 for only the fourth time since the magical year of 1997.

“Since I’ve been at Michigan, we lose this game,” redshirt freshman quarterback Cade McNamara bluntly offered afterwards. “It’s a testament to the guys in that locker room, the coaches who made a commitment to make this year different. We’ve got something special here.”

Not something unbeatable. Not something championship assured, by any means. Not something Michigan State, Penn State, Ohio State, etc. will quake in fear over.

But something special, following a 2-4 COVID year in which a secondary virus seemed to infect the Wolverines with apathetic sub-mediocrity?

Oh, yeah. No doubt.

You only needed to watch junior defender Aidan Hutchinson bellow joyously at his head coach’s face, over and over, in the game’s aftermath, to understand. You only needed to witness the incredible unleashing of emotions after this survival in another gladiator’s colosseum.

“It was a great football fight,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Incredible plays made by incredible athletes on both teams, and the fight for the win. Fighting for down after down after down. It was tremendous. Tremendous game, great … incredible, really. We’re enjoying it. We’re enjoying the incredible.”

Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Mazi Smith put it this way: “Everybody says, ‘Everybody has got a plan until you get punched in the mouth.’ But when we get punched, we’ve still got that plan.”

Frost had one, too. He just walked away, silently absorbing his toughest loss of the year. This would surely be his night. The crowd, his players and he himself wouldn’t let it be any other way.

His 0-9 mark against ranked foes wouldn’t become 0-10. His 5-15 record in games decided by eight points or fewer couldn’t become 5-16.

But they did. See, there are victories you can’t talk your way into. You must earn them.

The Wolverines understand. They know how much they’ve got to fix, to hone, to advance to get anywhere near where they want to go. But they also know what their effort, excitement and incredibly hard work have given them.

A chance — and the pride of punching back, amid a flurry of body blows. Adversity knocked, and the Wolverines didn’t hit the deck.

“The atmosphere, the environment, it just showed a lot of poise and moxie by our guys,” Harbaugh said. “There’s no doubt that they wanted to storm the field, tear down the goalposts … not on our guys’ watch tonight. That was pretty cool. Pretty cool. Proud of them.”

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