CNN –
The No. 1 Michigan Wolverines used a punishing rushing attack to defeat the No. 2 Washington Huskies 34-13 in the College Football Playoff National Championship game Monday night at NRG Stadium in Houston.
It is the first national title for Michigan since 1997 and the 10th overall NCAA football title for the winningest program in college football history.
Michigan (15-0), which earlier this season became the first college football program ever to reach 1,000 wins, rushed for 303 yards and four touchdowns as a team, handing Washington its first loss of the season.
The NCAA credits Michigan with ten football championships, while Michigan claims twelve. The 1932 and 1947 titles, which Michigan counts as having won, are not recognized by the NCAA.
“It couldn't have gone better. It went exactly the way we wanted to win every game,” Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh told reporters after the game.
In a matchup of the last two undefeated teams in the country, Michigan scored early when Wolverines running back Donovan Edwards scored a 41-yard rushing touchdown on the game's first drive. Edwards doubled the Wolverines' score on the team's next offensive attack after he failed a 46-yard touchdown run to give Michigan a 14-3 lead in the first quarter.
Edwards' two touchdowns are the second and third longest touchdown runs in CFP championship game history, trailing only Alabama's Derrick Henry's 50-yard score in 2016.
Washington struggled to get much going on offense for most of the first half until Huskies quarterback and Heisman Trophy runner-up Michael Penix Jr. connected with Jalen McMillan on a 3-yard touchdown pass on fourth down and scored the goal with less than a minute left in the second half to reduce the deficit to 17-10.
Both teams' defenses stepped up in the second half, as both teams traded field goals early in the third quarter before forcing punts on six consecutive drives.
Michigan added a sure score midway through the fourth quarter with a 12-yard run by Blake Corum to take a 27-13 lead.
With Washington needing a score to stay in the game, the Michigan defense arguably came up with the play of the game when Mike Sainristil intercepted a pass from Penix Jr. and returned it 81 yards to set up a second Corum touchdown.
Corum finished the game with 134 rushing yards on 21 carries and the two touchdowns, while Edwards added 104 rushing yards on six carries and two touchdowns to pace the Wolverines' ground game.
Michigan's national championship caps a season filled with controversy off the field for the Wolverines.
Head coach Harbaugh was suspended for the first three games, a self-imposed sanction by the Michigan athletics department for NCAA recruiting violations. The NCAA, which is currently investigating the matter, could potentially impose additional penalties in this case.
The NCAA opened a second investigation into the Wolverines in October over alleged sign-stealing, which led to the suspension and subsequent resignation of Michigan football analyst Connor Stalions and the firing of linebackers coach Chris Partidge.
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The Wolverines celebrate a touchdown.
Harbaugh has denied knowledge of a plan to steal other teams' signs, but accepted a three-game suspension – bringing his total number of away games away from the Michigan side to six.
Both NCAA investigations into Michigan remain ongoing.
“As far as the off-field issues go, we are innocent and we stood strong and steadfast because we knew we were innocent,” Harbaugh told reporters after the game.
“I just want to point out that these guys are innocent. [To] Overcoming that wasn’t so difficult because we knew we were innocent.”
Then attention turned to Harbaugh's future and the possibility that he would one day lead an NFL team to the Super Bowl.
“I just want to enjoy this. I hope you give me this,” he said when asked about his future ambitions. “Can a guy have that?” Does it always have to be about what comes next, what the future is?
“As I said the other day, yes, I hope to have a future. I hope there is a tomorrow, a day after tomorrow, a next week, a next month, a next year.”
Meanwhile, Washington's loss marks the program's final game as a member of the Pac-12 Conference as the Huskies are slated to join the Big Ten next season.
Penix, a Heisman Trophy finalist who led the nation in passing, completed 27 of 51 pass attempts in the title game, albeit with two interceptions.
Penix enjoyed a remarkable final college season, with the sixth-year quarterback – he suffered three season-ending injuries in his first four years of college football at Indiana and has two surgically repaired knees – considered a potential first-round pick next year NFL exploded draft.
John Mersits/AP
Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. tried to stay positive after the loss.
According to ESPN, he became the first college quarterback to throw for 4,500 yards in back-to-back seasons since Patrick Mahomes did so at Texas Tech in 2015 and 2016.
“It's annoying. We played against a good team. They did some good things,” Penix told reporters after the loss.
“I feel like we just missed a lot of opportunities offensively, opportunities that we needed to execute on the most to help our team and put our team in a better position to get this win.”
“We've been through a lot together and we're not going to point fingers or anything like that. There’s a lot of love in the locker room.”