Michigan and Washington played at their peaks. In this rematch, they’re rebuilding

Michigan and Washington were two of the oldest teams in college football when they met in the College Football Playoff championship game nine months ago in Houston. Saturday, they will meet again as Big Ten opponents in what might be called the Before and After Bowl.

Both head coaches from Michigan’s championship game victory, Jim Harbaugh and Kalen DeBoer, are gone to other jobs. Both starting quarterbacks: gone. Every offensive line starter: gone. Defensive coordinators, strength coaches, support staffers: gone, gone and gone.

At this point in the comparison, Washington coach Jedd Fisch has a few points of clarification to make. Yes, Fisch and Michigan coach Sherrone Moore have navigated some of the same challenges since taking over for DeBoer and Harbaugh. Yes, both programs lost coaches, NFL Draft picks and multiyear starters. But no, these two rebuilds are not the same.

“I think their situation is very different,” Fisch said. “Sherrone was on the staff for six years. Everybody remained on the team that was recruited to be on that team. They kept half of their coaching staff. There’s been a lot of, let’s call it, continuity.”

If life after the national championship game has felt disorienting for Michigan, imagine how it feels for Washington. The Huskies played 71 offensive snaps in the CFP championship game, which adds up to 781 when multiplied by 11 players. Of those 781 snaps, four came from players currently on the roster: three from wide receiver Giles Jackson, who started his career at Michigan, and one from tight end Quentin Moore.

“The fact of the matter is our team is completely different,” Fisch said. “The only thing that’s the same is the logo.”

Adjusting to this new reality has been a challenge for both programs. Michigan is 4-1 and ranked No. 10, but instability at quarterback and turnover on the offensive line have made every game a struggle. Washington is 3-2 and lost to Rutgers and Washington State despite outgaining both opponents. It speaks to the perception of both teams that ESPN’s “College GameDay” bypassed the national championship rematch and will set up shop a few hundred miles south as Cal hosts No. 8 Miami.

For Fisch and Moore, last year’s run to the CFP championship game is proof of what’s possible but also a tall standard to be judged by. Moore is 8-1 as Michigan’s head coach, counting four games last season when he filled in for Harbaugh. The Wolverines have found ways to win, but as the reigning national champions, they’re under a microscope that magnifies their flaws.

“When you’re at Michigan you want to represent this place in a fashion like none other,” Moore said. “For me, regardless of if we won it or not — I’m obviously happy we did — there’s a standard that I want us to keep, on and off the field.”

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Michigan still has Will Johnson, Donovan Edwards, Colston Loveland and other key contributors from last year. Washington had 44 scholarship players when Fisch was hired from Arizona to replace DeBoer. The Huskies added 15 players from the transfer portal, including quarterback Will Rogers, running back Jonah Coleman and cornerback Ephesians Prysock, and have one returning starter from the national championship game, linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala.

“The two programs, the two scenarios, are completely unique and different,” Fisch said.

Fisch and Moore have taken different approaches in trying to recreate last season’s success, too. Michigan has tried to deviate as little as possible from Harbaugh’s way of doing things. The Wolverines run a lot of the same schemes, use a lot of the same mantras and point to last year’s success as proof that their methods work.

Fisch, on the other hand, isn’t trying to follow a blueprint left by DeBoer. Many of the players from last year’s CFP team were recruited by former head coaches Chris Petersen and Jimmy Lake. DeBoer took over a talented team, supplemented it with players from the portal and helped the Huskies regain their winning edge. DeBoer’s run at Washington was a two-year success story that helped him land one of the most coveted jobs in coaching as Nick Saban’s successor, but it’s not something Fisch is actively trying to emulate.

“It’s a completely different mentality, a different philosophy on how we want to recruit,” Fisch said. “We’re much more high school-oriented, most similar to the way coach Petersen was. Our goal is to try to create it with freshmen and sophomores and let the program take on the personality of the coaching staff.”

The era of the four-team Playoff was dominated by three programs — Alabama, Clemson and Georgia — that could play for a national championship, reload with five-star recruits and contend again the following year. Michigan and Washington broke that mold by assembling championship rosters over a period of years and building to a crescendo in 2023.

For programs that build their rosters that way, the crescendo is often followed by a dip. Michigan and Washington are experiencing that this season as they integrate transfers, young players and first-time starters at key positions.

Edwards was the star of Michigan’s CFP championship victory with touchdown runs of 41 and 46 yards. He returned for his senior season to be part of the transition to a new era, but the transition hasn’t been easy. Aside from Kalel Mullings, who emerged as Michigan’s No. 1 running back with three consecutive 100-yard rushing yard performances, the offense hasn’t found much it can rely on.

“This offense, we’re only returning one starter, and that’s Colston,” Edwards said. “A lot of guys have been asked to be put in a position that they have never been put in. That’s something I had to come to the realization of: This isn’t last year’s team. This is team 145, not team 144.”

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Fisch’s program-building philosophy was shaped by two years he spent on Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan. Fisch experienced some of the heartbreaks that made Michigan’s national championship victory even sweeter, including the “Trouble with the Snap” game against Michigan State in 2015 and the double-overtime loss to Ohio State in 2016. He eventually moved on to Arizona, where he went 1-11 and 5-7 before a 10-win season in 2023.

The lesson is that building the kinds of teams Michigan and Washington had last season isn’t something that happens overnight. Player retention is a big part of the strategy for both programs, which means committing to young players and sticking with them as they mature.

“That, to me, is really what that model is for how we like to do it,” Fisch said. “Our goal is to be able to retain players, not buy players. To retain them, it’s going to take a huge investment in freshmen, an investment in watching the team get better.”

That can be tough to swallow for fans who just watched their team play for a national championship. The road back looks arduous for both programs, and both coaches will be held to higher standards thanks to the success of their predecessors. But if the alternative is coaching a team with no expectations, Fisch would choose this option every time.

“I would always choose this situation where you have the potential,” Fisch said. “The upside, and the ceiling at Washington, is elite.”

(Top photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)