HOUSTON — Victory looks familiar. It looks like Michigan on one end of the field in NRG Stadium hoisting the College Football Playoff trophy to commemorate its first national championship since 1997. It’s triumphant in its jubilation and it crystallizes glory. We think less about what defeat looks like. It’s painful and equally raw. On this night, defeat looks like Ja’Lynn Polk sitting alone, despondent on the opposite end of the field with a towel draped over his head in that same sea of maize-and-blue confetti, so close yet so far from college football’s ultimate prize after Washington’s 34–13 defeat to Michigan on Monday night.
“That’s one of them moments that you don’t really get back, you know?” Polk said. “You gotta remember times like that and let it sink in. Everything that happened in that moment, you just want to lean on each other and be there for your brothers.”
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