Michigan Wolverines football won in triple-overtime Saturday night at Rutgers.
Here is a look around the internet at what they're saying about the Wolverines' win:
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Chris Balas, The Wolverine: Michigan Football 48, Rutgers 42 (3OT): Notes, Quotes & Observations
Michigan won, and that Wolverines found their quarterback.
That’s most of the good news from U-M's Saturday night, 48-42 triple overtime win over Rutgers, a fitting, dragged-out affair between two of the Big Ten’s most struggling teams.
The Wolverines spotted the Scarlet Knights 17 points and came back behind redshirt freshman quarterback Cade McNamara, who barring something ridiculous put an end to any “quarterback controversy” talk.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh was put on the spot in the postgame in asking if McNamara was his quarterback going forward after the redshirt frosh completed 27 of 36 passes for 260 yards and four touchdowns to lead the comeback.
“We’ll look at it. But the way he played tonight … he’s going to be in there,” Harbaugh said.
“… He’s very well prepared. I think he’s seeing things very good. His confidence has always been really high. It’s a testament to his ability. I’m really happy for him. It was gritty. Sometimes you’ve got to see it in a game, and that was about as good as you could come in and play.”
McNamara has a command of the offense redshirt sophomore Joe Milton (5-of-12 passing for 89 yards in a quarter and a half) simply doesn’t yet, throws catchable balls and — for the second straight week — lit a fire under a team that desperately needed it. He and redshirt sophomore running back Hassan Haskins, who has been inexplicably and criminally underused the last several weeks, were the bright spots on an otherwise dismal night in which U-M just avoided becoming the butt of Big Ten jokes again along with 0-5 Penn State.
Many shoulders were slumping when they fell behind 17-0, with guys (at times) jogging behind plays and letting their body language do the talking for them again.
McNamara, though, lit a fire that should have been good enough to win in regulation, especially after U-M grabbed a 35-27 lead with 5:07 remaining.
Here are two things that jumped off the television tonight and epitomized the Wolverines’ futility.
On the final possession of regulation for Rutgers, quarterback Noah Vedral ran in the two-point conversation for a score. The play looked completely doomed, as Michigan penetrated the middle and Vedral, who is 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, connected with his first Michigan defender, DB Makari Paige, near the 4-yard-line.
Vedral won’t be mistaken for Cam Newton or Josh Allen walking off the plane, but he managed to absorb Paige’s hit and drag he and another Wolverine into the end zone to tie the game and send it to overtime.
The lack of bodies swarming to Vedral underscores the greater point about coordinator Don Brown’s underperforming defensive unit. Michigan’s defense doesn’t beehive to the ball, it watches it. The best defenses, the ones that play with energy, effort and cohesion, have seven or eight players surrounding the tackle on every play. Michigan’s defense doesn’t have near that spark, as the Wolverines remain rudderless, emotionless and disconnected. And that’s the scariest part for Michigan as it ponders how to move forward.
We’ve covered the depths of Michigan pretty thoroughly, as Harbaugh has nearly 13 months remaining on his contract and is seemingly real-time campaigning via performance to make sure it’s not extended. Self-awareness is not Harbaugh’s strength, but even he has to realize the depths he dragged the program to and how overwhelming some type of fix would be. A staff overhaul and a detonation of the recruiting department is necessary, but luring quality replacements isn’t easy when you would enter 2021 wheezing with no contractual support.
There’s still a prevailing notion that Michigan won’t fire Harbaugh. The program has been gutted by opt-outs (Ambry Thomas and Nico Collins), injuries to its two best defensive players (Aidan Hutchinson and Kwity Paye) and has been without both starting offensive tackles (Jalen Mayfield and Ryan Hayes).
While those are among the best players in the program – three of them are potential first-round picks in the 2021 NFL draft – it strains credulity to pinpoint Michigan’s issues solely to high-end talent missing. The bigger issue appears to be a missing heartbeat.
The best way to sum up the conundrum of Michigan’s administration with Harbaugh after a triple-overtime clunker is this: When watching Michigan on Saturday night, it became clear the Wolverines needed to be more like Rutgers.
John Borton, The Wolverine: Wolverine Watch: Someday Is Now For McNamara
McNamara darted around and flipped short passes to players who could race away for big yardage. He hung in the pocket to deliver the bomb. He found a way to get rid of the ball when a sack (and his head) were on the line.
He simply looked like a quarterback who could move a team when it desperately needed to move. He mentioned swagger, and performed like he deserved to carry it.
“I just had to stay prepared,” McNamara said. “I was confident in the way I prepared this week. That led to me being able to perform the way I did when my number was called.
“In my career, I’ve been down really big. I feel like I have a comfort level when it comes to coming from behind.”
Michigan has made a habit of being behind, ever since the season began in a gold rush of pyrite in Minnesota. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Joe Milton looked like a budding star in that one, and has shown flashes since.
He still possesses tremendous physical talent. That hasn’t changed, and nobody should write him off. But the Wolverines haven’t moved the football consistently since that season opener, sputtering in losses to Michigan State, Indiana and Wisconsin.
They were going nowhere fast as well against the Scarlet Knights. Then McNamara entered, and it looked like a completely different offense.
“Cade came in and gave a huge spark, and then played lights out from there on out,” Harbaugh said.
In the credit where credit’s due department, former U-M All-American Jon Jansen — who sees plenty behind the curtain — warned against ignoring McNamara all the way back last spring. He was playing very well, Jansen insisted, and no QB preview should leave out such a mention.
Some scoffed. Sure thing, they said. But he’s obviously a distant third behind Dylan McCaffrey and Milton, so … maybe someday.
McNamara’s play shouts maybe now.
Should we believe anything Jim Harbaugh says? After Michigan’s humiliating defeat to Wisconsin last Saturday, Jim Harbaugh didn’t try to present an alternate version of the miserable everyone had just witnessed. Instead he just spoke the truth — acknowledging that his team wasn’t very good while taking accountability for the Wolverines’ failures through the midpoint of a wretched season.
He then promised that everything would be evaluated and addressed in the week to come. There was hope Michigan would make some adjustments and a few bold moves as well, with Harbaugh admitting fault and dabbling in some introspection.
But nope. On Saturday, the Wolverines looked like the same ill-equipped outfit that makes curious decisions and commits stupid mistakes. For the second time in eight days, Milton was stopped on a keeper on fourth-and-short.
As they have since the beginning of this year, the Wolverines relied on a rotation of running backs and peculiar substitution patterns that yielded poor results for long stretches. The struggles Michigan has experienced at the outset of games also resurfaced, as the Wolverines fell behind by 17 points. The deep coverage was again suspect, as Rutgers seared Michigan’s secondary on multiple occasions. And, yes, once again Milton authored another underwhelming performance, necessitating McNamara to come off the bench in the second quarter and invigorate the offense.
Everything but the end result looked so familiar, which is why Harbaugh’s words last week amounted to empty promises. It’s hard to believe anything he says going forward.
It's a victory tempered with the fact it's Rutgers. The what-to-do questions will continue with Harbaugh heading into a matchup against Penn State (0-5), the only traditional Big Ten power that has it worse than the Wolverines this season.
If there is an excuse for some programs, then it's that enthusiasm can be hard to generate in a losing season during the COVID-19 pandemic. Penn State and LSU can relate, but those programs have better excuses. The Nittany Lions have played in New Year's Day 6 bowls three of the last four years and lost Micah Parsons and Journey Brown before the season. The Tigers won the national championship last year then lost 14 players to the NFL Draft along with assistant coaches Joe Brady and Dave Aranda.
They can tee up a mulligan in 2021 with less ill will from their fan bases.
Do the Wolverines have the same case? Receiver Nico Collins and cornerback Ambry Thomas chose not to play this season. Starting tackles Jalen Mayfield and Ryan Hayes are out. So are the two best pass-rushers in Aidan Hutchinson and Kwity Paye. Linebacker Cam McGrone left Saturday's game with an injury. Those are the players whose names will be called on Days 2 and 3 of the 2021 NFL Draft.
It could be worse. It could be Michigan's southern cousins in Tennessee. The Vols lost their fifth straight game Saturday after an offseason where the enthusiasm clouded realistic expectations.
Which brings us back to the Harbaugh question: What are the expectations for 2020 and beyond? Can that be answered over the next three weeks, against Penn State, Maryland (maybe) and Ohio State? It's not the easiest decision for Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel.
Fire Harbaugh, and there is the risk factor of knowing that seven years of Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke produced a 46-42 record — a stretch in which the Wolverines had three losing seasons and were nowhere near relevant on the national stage.
Retaining Harbaugh and sticking to the outdated "Michigan Man" mantra without tangible results could push the program further back the pecking order in the Big Ten. We're not just talking about Ohio State either. Indiana and Northwestern have been more competitive in 2020.
John Niyo, The Detroit News: McNamara gives Michigan a bit of life in comeback victory
You could make an argument that there are no winners here.
Not when you’re playing football past midnight in the middle of a pandemic in Piscataway, New Jersey. Overtime football, no less. Multiple overtimes in a four-hour cage match between a pair of one-win teams on the weekend before Thanksgiving.
But beggars can’t be choosers, especially in this surreal college football season. And this exhausted exhilaration they were all wearing on their faces when it was over? Yes, it surely does feel better than losing if you’re Michigan, especially when you’d gone nearly a full month without even leading a game, let alone winning one, the way Michigan had before staging a wild comeback to beat Rutgers in triple-OT, 48-42, Saturday night.
And for Cade McNamara, if this wasn’t exactly the script he’d have written himself, it’s the one he was handed. So he says he just did what came naturally, and in the process Michigan’s backup quarterback earned himself a curtain call.
It was McNamara’s efficient passing and poise in the face of another yawning disaster — Michigan was trailing Rutgers, 17-0, late in the second quarter when the coaches yanked starter Joe Milton for a second consecutive week — that finally helped the Wolverines get their act together.
And by the time McNamara's night was done early Sunday morning, after the Wolverines had stormed back to take the lead and then blown it at the end of regulation, after they’d survived two overtimes and finally a third, I think it’s safe to say Michigan has a new starting quarterback moving forward.
“He was outstanding,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said afterward. “Really gritty performance, in all ways. Super tough, really executed. His play was inspiring. I can't say enough great things — so proud of him.”
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