PASADENA, Calif.—An hour after the Rose Bowl ended, with nobody in the stands and few people still on the field, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy crouched alone in the end zone to take in what had just happened. When he got up, eyes still wet with tears, he hugged a Michigan employee and headed for the exit. It wasn’t the first time McCarthy had stopped to feel the emotions that come at the end of a College Football Playoff semifinal, but it is the first time he wasn’t processing a searing defeat.
After the Orange Bowl in 2021, he stood solemnly with Andrel Anthony, Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards after Georgia dismantled Michigan. Following the loss to TCU in the Fiesta Bowl last year, McCarthy stood alone, helmet in hand, as purple confetti rained on the team that had just upset his Wolverines. This time, the tears were anything but sad.
“It’s indescribable just because the last two years, being able to watch the opposing team celebrate, it’s just different when I see the maize and blue confetti on the field,” McCarthy said after Michigan’s 27–20 overtime victory over Alabama Monday. “I’m nothing without this head coach [Jim Harbaugh], nothing without my teammates, nothing without that defense. Everything was so amazing. It’s just really, really amazing.”
