‘Three more to go’: Michigan seeking more than just win over Ohio State

ANN ARBOR - Roman Wilson started to get emotional thinking about how Saturday would be his last game at Michigan Stadium. Then he realized he’s got at least one more game to play this season. He’s hoping a few more.

The Wolverines beat Ohio State and earned a trip to the Big Ten championship on Saturday and their reaction was sort of like,

Of course they have. They pulled off that double dip each of the past two years as well. Saturday’s victory didn’t come as easily as those. This was a 30-24 margin in which the Buckeyes were driving with a chance to win in the final minute. Michigan got an interception to seal it.

Don’t get it confused: The Wolverines enjoyed it. They’d won The Game and capped an undefeated regular season. They are not robots, and their whooping in the Michigan Stadium tunnel proved it. Wilson doesn’t do a backflip on the field in the closing seconds of game.

And yet, Team 144 has its sights set on greater heights.

“(They’re) extremely excited to win the game, but they expected to win it,” said Sherrone Moore, who filled in for the suspended Jim Harbaugh as Michigan’s head coach. Michigan will shoot for a third straight Big Ten title in Indianapolis on Saturday against Iowa. “And we’re not satisfied with just winning that,” Moore said. “We have bigger goals.”

The Wolverines made similar comments entering last year’s playoffs, having been there in 2021 also and losing in the semifinals. Michigan was far more competitive against TCU but ultimately suffered the same fate. This is the most complete Michigan team in recent years, capable of going a step or two further.

“We’ve been in the same position the last two years and fallen short,” defensive lineman Mason Graham said. “We’re going to build off the past two years and we have the expectation of going past that.”

As quarterback J.J. McCarthy said to Blake Corum’s dad as he was congratulated exiting the postgame press conference: “We got three more to go.”

That was Wilson’s realization in the locker room after the win. He may not get to score another touchdown in the Big House - as he did on Saturday - but his career isn’t over.

“I can’t wait to go all the way with this team,” he said. “There’s no other people, no other guys I’d rather go all the way with.”

In the tunnel after the game, former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer was in no mood to talk, brusquely turning down a reporter’s request to talk before a question could be asked. His FOX “Big Noon Kickoff” colleague Charles Woodson obliged.

“It’s good,” the Michigan football legend said when asked about the program, “but we’ve taken these steps before - beating Ohio State, we’ve gotten to the playoff. But we haven’t won (in the playoff). That’s the next hurdle.”

We’ll see how high these Wolverines can jump.