Back-to-back-to-back: View from the field as Michigan celebrates its third straight Big Ten title

The Michigan Wolverines are in the midst of a golden age: Back-to-back-to-back Big Ten Champions!

INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan has played football for 144 years. The Wolverines have never won three straight outright Big Ten titles.

Until now.

As expected, U-M made relatively easy work of the Iowa Hawkeyes to clinch the 2023 Big Ten Championship on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium. A Semaj Morgan punt return set up the first of two Blake Corum touchdowns to give Michigan an early two-score lead. And from then on, the outcome was never really in question — though a quiet offensive showing meant it also wasn’t necessarily all that comfortable.

But in the end, it was Michigan — again. The Wolverines were showered in torrents of maize and blue confetti as Zak Zinter and his teammates lifted the silver trophy into the sky for all to see:

Here are your champions. We are your champions. Again. And again.It was one of the more special moments in a memorable season: Zak Zinter suffered one of the most gruesome injuries I’ve seen on a college football field, and an entire stadium came together to lift him up. Joel Klatt said it best on his podcast:

“I have my headset on during the timeout. It’s hard to hear the crowd unless the sound from the game is happening. Even though my headset is on, I hear the stadium start to come alive. They’re pumping up the air cast, the team is devastated and the Big House starts chanting — if I get emotional, I’m sorry — ‘Let’s go Zak! Let’s go Zak!’

“It’s not just one section. It’s not just one area. It was the whole stadium and it was loud. It was so loud that I took my headset off to hear it. I was blown away. I’ve never heard a stadium that loud in a commercial break, ever. This was completely human element-driven — no music, no band, no PA announcer.”

And they did it again on Saturday. Zinter was the first Michigan player on the field before kickoff, and he walked onto the turf at Lucas Oil Stadium to another serenade of ‘Let’s go Zak!’ He returned to the locker room some four hours later in a wheelchair — and with a massive smile on his face. He’s a Big Ten Champion for the third straight year.

FOX announcer Joel Klatt hosted the postgame ceremony, which featured a very brief appearance from Big Ten Commissioner Tony Pettiti. Amidst a chorus of boos, the commissioner handed the trophy to U-M’s injured captain, Zak Zinter. And then Harbaugh took the mic to ask the crowd a question:

I’ve got one question for you, Michigan nation: Who’s got a better than us!? NOBODY!

J.J. McCarthy has celebrated touchdowns all season by placing imaginary crowns on the heads of his teammates. On stage at the Big Ten Championship awards ceremony, Harbaugh received his placement. He has brought a Michigan program that had been scuffling in the painful realm of mediocrity to its golden era. And a golden age deserves an (imaginary) golden crown.

U-M President Santa Ono showed up to the Big Ten Championship Game in a #ChadTough jersey. As he is everywhere, he was an instant hit: Michigan fans asked him for selfies, and he happily obliged. But what stood out to me was what happened postgame in the team’s celebration: Ono clearly did not want to be the focal point of photographs. But then Michigan football player after Michigan football player came up to him and wanted to pose for a shot.

As DT Kris Jenkins said earlier this fall:

“Absolutely one of the coolest people. Without a doubt the coolest university president I’ve ever met. He has so much love for the program. We love and appreciate what he’s done for us and what he’s willing to do for our program.”

Denard Robinson, one of the most beloved players in recent Michigan football history, is a Big Ten Champion. Again.

From UCF to back-to-back. Cam Goode has taken a big step forward on the field this year, and he’s a two-time Big Ten Champion.

Blake Corum decided to come back for one more year. Here’s a partial list of what he accomplished:

– He set a Michigan single-season record for rushing touchdowns

– He set a Michigan career record for most touchdowns

– He won a third straight Big Ten Championship Game — and this one on his own terms. A year after a knee injury sidelined him, Blake The Great scored two rushing touchdowns against Iowa to help claim the title. He also scored the biggest touchdown of the season against the Buckeyes. He also remained an impactful member of his community off the field. He was a captain, a good dude, and is still a champion

This isn’t from the postgame celebration. I just really like the picture.

Mike Sainristil said it best:

This team is constantly maturing, getting better as men every single day. It’s been a process, but it’s been a very great process, a learning process, learning experience. I don’t think that you could paint a better picture, but the picture also isn’t done being painted.

I can’t wait to continue this journey with these guys. Coach says he can’t have it any better — he has it better than nobody when it comes to players, and as a player, I don’t think I could have it any better than a coach like Coach Harbaugh who loves us as his sons. When you have a coach who loves you in that way, you’re able to as a player then love your coach as well as love your players. We’re direct reflections of how Coach Harbaugh treats us.

From imaginary crowns to smoking imaginary cigars. As the kids say:

Tony Pettiti didn’t want that smoke.

(Photo: Alejandro Zúñiga, 247Sports)

Mike Sainristil: Michigan legend.

It just feels great. Guys like me and Blake, this is what we came back for, to have the success with this team, like the brotherhood that this team has is one that I wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world, and this team is going down in history. The way we go about our goals is you put everything into the next goal, and there’s work — there’s more work to put in and more ways to get better. Coach is probably going to say it. I’m going to say it first before he says it. The worm has turned around here.

‘Cause in this city’s barren cold, I still remember the first fall of snow, and how it glistened as it fell … I remember it all too well.

Back-to-back-to-back. This is the maize-and-blue-tinted golden era of Michigan football. Enjoy the hell out of it.