Michigan
National championship 2024: Five keys to Michigan beating Washington, winning College Football Playoff
There is one more world for No. 1 Michigan and coach Jim Harbaugh to conquer. The Wolverines have overcome Ohio State and ended their Big Ten title drought in the process. This season, not only did they make the College Football Playoff, but they beat No. 4 Alabama to win their first playoff game.
Now, No. 2 Washington stands between the Wolverines and the program’s first national title since 1997. Michigan is favored to win the game, but the Huskies present a challenge the likes of which Michigan hasn’t seen this year. They come to Houston, Texas, with one of the top quarterbacks in the game (Michael Penix Jr.) and a trio of wide receivers who would make NFL general managers blush.
Finishing the job will not be easy, and these are the five keys to Michigan hoisting the trophy Monday night.
1. Control the tempo with the run game
The biggest mismatch in this game is between Michigan’s ground game and the Washington run defense. In short, Michigan’s strength plays to Washington’s greatest defensive weakness. The Wolverines offense leans heavily on the ground game, though it isn’t explosive; it’s more a war of attrition than anything. The Wolverines get behind an excellent offensive line and send Blake Corum and company crashing into it like so many waves against a rocky shoreline.
While there aren’t the same big runs we saw last season (the knee injury Corum suffered late last season has impacted him heavily in this department), the Wolverines stay on schedule. Their negative play rate of 17.49% in the run game ranks No. 8 nationally. In Washington, they will face a rush defense that ranks No. 130 nationally in success rate against the run and negative play rate against the run.
Michigan will likely choose to get three or four yards at a time to set up third and manageable situations that could also become fourth downs for which the Wolverines choose to stay on the field. Michigan doesn’t find itself in many fourth-down situations but is aggressive when they occur. This will be a way to control the tempo of the game and limit overall possessions. After all, the best way to slow down a potent offense like Washington’s has always been to keep it off the field.
2. Pressure Michael Penix
Penix is nearly impossible to sack. His ability to sense pressure in the pocket, avoid it, and then quickly fire off a pass is unparalleled in the college game this season. Penix has a sack rate of only 2.1% (No. 2 nationally) despite a pressure allowed rate of 25.9% (No. 16). If you go back and watch the Sugar Bowl, you’ll see numerous plays when Texas pressured Penix through the interior, but Penix avoided it and made plays.
Watch the Rose Bowl, and you’ll see Michigan’s defense eat Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe alive with pressure. Penix is a lot more difficult to sack than Milroe, though sack avoidance has never been one of Milroe’s strengths. But just because it’ll be more difficult doesn’t mean it’s not of the utmost importance.
Teams didn’t blitz Washington much this year — a combination of Penix and the terror of leaving Washington’s receivers in man coverage)– and Michigan doesn’t blitz often because it doesn’t have to. Michigan’s pressure rate of 41.4% ranks No. 6 nationally, and its sack rate of 9.5% ranks No. 7. There isn’t a QB on Earth who enjoys being pressured while trying to throw.
3. Limit explosive plays
This is somewhat connected to the last key. Pressure will force Washington to get the ball out quicker and reduce the chance of big plays, but with or without pressure Michigan’s secondary must keep plays in front of it as best it can. The Washington offense ranks No. 8 with an explosive play rate of 16.4%, including an explosive pass rate of 21.4% (No. 10). Penix is an aggressive quarterback who isn’t afraid to take shots downfield and has the arm to make nearly every throw required.
The Michigan defense ranked third with an explosive pass rate allowed of 9.59%, but the Wolverines didn’t face an offense like Washington’s this year. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t prepared. The Michigan defense of today is the result of a years-long process of creating a unit that could stop the Ohio State offenses that long dominated the Big Ten. This season’s Ohio State offense wasn’t the same, but the Washington offense the Wolverines will see Monday isn’t dissimilar to the Ohio State offenses they stopped with quarterback C.J. Stroud at the helm.
4. Take shots in the passing game
I told you Washington’s passing offense ranks No. 10 nationally with an explosive play rate of 21.4%. Would you be shocked to learn that Michigan ranks even higher? It does. Michigan’s 21.9% explosive pass rate ranks No. 6, but the Wolverines don’t take nearly as many deep shots as Washington does. But they take them, and they’ll need to do so in this game.
Just because Michigan can run the ball doesn’t mean it should become predictable, and with Washington likely keying on stopping the run, the opportunity to take the top off the Huskies defense will be there. Whether it uses a trick play or play action, Michigan needs to present a vertical threat to keep Washington’s defense honest.
5. Remember how to play special teams
It’s wild to look back on the special teams mistakes Michigan made in the Rose Bowl against Alabama and how easily any one of them could’ve led to a loss. There were two muffed punts, a botched extra point, a missed field goal and a bad performance from punter Tommy Doman.
What makes it all the more surprising is that while Michigan didn’t have an elite special teams unit during the regular season, it was above average. Michigan entered the Rose Bowl ranked No. 50 nationally in special teams EPA at 11.50. It fell to No. 80 and a -2.73 following a -14.23 EPA performance against Alabama. That’s insane! It’s also reason to believe that what we saw in the Rose Bowl will not repeat itself in the title game, and it’s safe to assume Michigan took additional steps this week to ensure they won’t.
A group of residents on Holland Road in Taylor, Michigan, say they are now doing everything they can to keep their neighborhood the way it is after some of them received a letter saying the city is considering rezoning their neighborhood.
“People across the street from me could have warehouse front property instead of woods and nice residential homes,” said Matthew Streicher.
Streicher, whose family has owned property on Holland Road for more than 100 years, says that has been his concern after he received a letter from the city about a proposed rezoning from residential to light industrial directly behind his home near Wick and Holland roads.
“So that’s when I also decided to start knocking on doors around here and saying this is what is going on, we need to speak out and have a voice as to what happens in our backyards, literally,” said Streicher.
Streicher told CBS News Detroit that three of his neighbors received that letter, informing residents that there’s a possibility of a new cold storage warehouse development if this land is rezoned.
“Nothing that belongs in a neighborhood,” said Tim Adkins.
“Heartbreaking, heartbreaking, you know,” said Denise Haggadone.
Many who live on Holland Road say this possibility is even more disturbing because of how long everyone has lived on this quaint road. And these same homeowners say that an industrial facility would only bring in more traffic and take away natural green space, most likely hurting their property value as well.
“It’s nice to see the wildlife, you know, there’s so few places left,” said Adkins.
On Tuesday, CBS News Detroit spoke off-camera with City Council Chairman Charley Johnson, who also lives on Holland Road. Johnson says he understands all of his neighbors’ concerns and agrees with them.
He says the company proposing this rezoning has every right to do so, and that the planning commission will vote on it Wednesday evening.
“It’s sad, I raised my kid here, and he’s planning on having this home after I pass or retire or what have you,” Haggadone said,
The residents hope to see a big turnout at Wednesday’s planning commission meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3, at Taylor City Hall.
The Sterling Heights City Council is set to consider a resolution Tuesday evening opposing tax policy bills in Lansing that one councilmember contends put every municipality “at risk.”
The Michigan House voted in May to pass several bills that would slash property taxes across the state, but skipped a vote on a bill needed to replace some of the more than $5 billion in lost tax revenue.
At its Tuesday evening meeting, Sterling Heights City Council is slated to consider the adoption of a resolution opposing Michigan House Bills 5872 through 5879 due to “their potential negative impact on local government revenue, financial planning, and administrative operations,” a city document said. Sterling Heights City Manager Mark Vanderpool said the city would lose about $5 million in annual revenue from the bills. He said there’s no “guaranteed replacement” for the lost revenue, and the city would need to cut services, he said.
“So we’re deeply concerned about that,” he said.
The House’s sweeping tax cuts can’t be implemented without the passage of a separate bill levying a loosely defined 6% sales tax on services that has yet to be revealed. Republicans who control the House did not hold a vote on the sales tax hike bill, which remains in committee.
All combined, the four property tax cuts passed by the House are estimated to result in a tax revenue loss that could progress from $5.5 billion to $7.5 billion a year, according to a series of nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency analyses.
Vanderpool, the Sterling Heights city manager, said he wants the state Legislature to work “hand in hand” with cities, townships and villages to come up with a solution for “guaranteed revenue replacement.”
“We are more than willing ― I think our reputation precedes us ― to work with our state legislators hand in hand to come up with viable solutions that … may reform property taxes without harming communities across the state,” he said.
Sterling Heights Councilwoman Barbara Ziarko said the legislation reduces the city’s revenue without a guarantee of what it will be replaced with. She said that in the future, the legislation could prevent the city from maintaining positions that it has promised residents it would maintain, including public safety roles.
“When they put the burden on our local government, they’re actually putting it on the residents of whatever community it is,” she said.
State Rep. Steve Frisbie, a Calhoun County Republican, previously said that Michigan residents need to see tax relief immediately. He noted a ballot proposal collecting signatures last year would have eliminated all property taxes in the state. That citizens’ initiative, known as AxMiTax, fizzled out and won’t be on the ballot this fall.
“They realized that our property taxes are too high and they demand that we take action now,” Frisbie said.
More on the bills
The cuts passed by the House in May would eliminate the 6-mill State Education Tax and eliminate the 0.75% real estate transfer tax assessed on the sale price of real estate.
House Republicans also signed off on eliminating the personal property tax. That bill, largely intended to benefit utility companies, is tied to separate legislation that requires utilities such as Consumers Energy and DTE Energy to pass on personal property tax savings by cutting electric and gas rates for their residential customers. It also requires utilities to freeze rates for two years.
Jennifer Varney, Sterling Heights’ finance and budget director, said the elimination of the personal property tax would result in a $4.3 million annual revenue loss for the city. She said the personal property tax refers to the taxes that businesses pay on their assets, such as their machines and vehicles.
Another tax on the chopping block is the so-called “pop-up tax,” an increase in a property tax bill that occurs when a house transfers from one owner to the next in Michigan, uncapping a constitutional limit on the property tax increase on a home’s taxable value.
Under the state Constitution, a property’s taxable value cannot increase by more than the rate of inflation or 5% each year. But when a property is sold, that cap lifts and is reset at a new, often higher taxable value, resulting in a “pop-up” in property taxes.
Varney said the “pop-up” is the only way cities “recapture” the true value of a home. Michigan also has the Headlee Amendment, a state law that requires local governments to roll back millage rates if taxable property values rise faster than the rate of inflation.
“If you take away the pop-up … and you keep the rollback of the millage, you’re basically limiting any kind of growth in taxable base for municipalities,” she said.
Staff Writer Beth LeBlanc contributed.
asnabes@detroitnews.com
Search for missing Michigan woman Lynette Hooker reopened
The search for missing Lynette Hooker has been reopened. Hooker, who is from Michigan, was with her husband in the Bahamas when he claims she fell off a boat. However, new location data from his cell phone contradicts the story he gave authorities.
(FOX 2) – The search for a missing Michigan in the Bahamas has been reopened after authorities say her husband allegedly gave police false information.
Lynette Hooker and her husband Brian were boating in the Bahamas in early April when, according to her husband, she fell off the boat and was swept to sea. Brian told police he had to paddle to shore after Lynette fell into the water because she had the key.
Brian was taken into custody in the Bahamas after Lynette’s disappearance, but was later released and returned back to Michigan.
Recently, it was revealed that new location data from Brian’s cell phone contradicts the story he gave to authorities, and suggests he may have sent search crews to the wrong area. This new information has led to the U.S. Coast Guard reopening its search for Lynette.
The Source: Previous reporting and information from FOX News were used in this story.
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