Indianapolis, IN — —After Michigan annihilated Ohio State 42-27 a few weeks ago, the Wolverines have been walking around with a different type swaggart.
Michigan stayed focus and ignored all the critics regarding Iowa, the Wolverines took an early 14-0 lead started with a 67-yard TD run by Blake Corum and never looked back, dominating No. 13 the Iowa Hawkeyes 42-3 Saturday night to win the Big Ten Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Hawkeyes had two early chances inside the red zone, but had to settle for just 3 points. Iowa trailed 14-3 at the break and never got in sync with their offense.
Spencer Petras finished 9-of-22 for 137 yards through the air. Alex Padilla, who came in to relieve Petras in the second half, finished 10-of-15 for 38 yards passing and an pick. Iowa couldn’t slow down the Michigan’s defensive pressure and in the second half just got blown out.
The Maze Blue team totaled 161 yards compared to Iowa’s 279. The Wolverines passed for 250 yards and rushed for 211, while the Hawkeyes passed for 175 and ran for 104.
Cade McNamara threw for 169 yards on 16-of-24 passing, one touchdown and an interception. The Wolverines rushed for 211 yards on 34 carries, led by running back Corum Blake (five rushes for 74 yards and a touchdown) and Hassan Haskins (17 rushes, 56 yards and two touchdowns).
The Wolverines are now 12-1 on the season, and the Hawkeyes are 10-3.
“We defied all expectations,” Wolverines defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said after becoming the first defensive player to earn game MVP honors. “Nobody ever thought we could do this, especially this season and we did it in dominant fashion.”
The win solidifies Michigan’s spot in the College Football Playoff.
Hassan Hawkins finally broke open the game with a 4-yard TD run midway through the third quarter then sealed the win with a 1-yard run that gave him 20 rushing TDs in a single season, one more than Ron Johnson had in his record-setting 1968 season.
Haskins ran for two scores and broke Johnson’s longtime school record. With the win, it is the first Big Ten title in 17 years and likely the first playoff berth in school history.
And then on championship week, the whole state was shocked by the shooting that took the lives of four high school students in Oxford, Michigan, including Tate Myre, a football player and wrestler. The Wolverines honored the victims of the school about an hour away from its campus by wearing a patch on their right shoulder with Myre’s jersey No. 42 and four hearts — one for each student who died — inside the school’s traditional block ‘O’ logo.
Myre’s family also joined the Wolverines captains at the 50-yard line for the pre-game coin toss and, ironically, Michigan final score gave them 42 points on the scoreboard.
“It was Aidan who came to me and wanted to dedicate this game to Tate Myre and ‘yes, let’s do that,’ that was huge,” coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Tate was a warrior. Best athlete in the school could have easily made it out of that school and been the first one out but you just know while people were running away from that fire, he was running into it. He’s a hero. I’m glad our players got sold on it.”
The Wolverines (12-1, No. 2 CFP) has won five straight and if it makes the playoff, as expected, one more win would send it back to Indianapolis for an even bigger championship game in January.
“One thing just leads to another sometimes, there are games like that unfortunately,” Ferentz said. “They’re not much fun. I’m not sure the score is totally representative of the two teams.”
UP NEXT:
Michigan: Will find out Sunday where the CFP selection committee has them seeded.
Iowa: Will wait to see who and where will play in its bowl game.
