Michigan players make case to be in College Football Playoff

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Michigan football players never expected to lose to Ohio State.

So they never planned on having to make a case for the College Football Playoff.

But after the 30-27 double-overtime loss to No. 2 Ohio State, the No. 3 ranked Wolverines were forced to start pitching.

Asked if these are the two best teams in the Big Ten, U-M quarterback Wilton Speight said, "absolutely."

"With Alabama, arguably in the country," he said. "So I don't know how it's all going to shake out, with the committee and all that. I'm sure our chances are slim to none now. It's a bummer that we don't get another shot at those guys again."

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Despite Speight's feeling, U-M still has an outside shot, slim though it may be.

Though the Wolverines are now 10-2 overall, many would consider them the nation's best two-loss team. The question is whether there's a spot for them.

Alabama, Ohio State, Washington and Clemson could be the four with one loss or fewer. But Washington and Clemson still have to play their conference title games. (Alabama probably would get in regardless.) As the nation's most accomplished resume team currently with three top-10 wins entering the day (Wisconsin, Penn State and Colorado), the committee has given U-M respect.

U-M co-captain Chris Wormley said they deserve a spot.

"I think so," he said. "They're saying Wisconsin can do that if they win next week and we beat that team, so there's probably some things that have to go our way, there's probably some people that have to be on our side of the committee or however that works. But we've played good football all year, so we're keeping our  fingers crossed and we're excited for whatever happens."

U-M coach Jim Harbaugh declined to make U-M's case.

"We make our case on the field, I'm not here to make any arguments or cases," he said. "I feel like our team has done everything they could possibly do and done it well."

The parallels to 2006 are eerie. U-M entered that OSU game in the title game/round (as the No. 2 team), lost a thriller to the Buckeyes -- who were one spot ahead -- on the road by three points.

U-M didn't make a public plea and was passed by another team that did. (Though this U-M team has two losses and that one had just one.)

In that one, Florida coach Urban Meyer was campaigning against the Wolverines. It will be interesting to see if this time he backs the Big Ten and makes the case for them.

Hill's TDs: Khalid Hill scored a pair of touchdowns for Michigan. He had a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter as Michigan took a 10-7 lead. U-M took a 17-7 lead with 6:37 left in the third quarter after Hill’s eight-yard touchdown catch. “It was a struggle,” Hill said of the game. “I got stopped on the goal line earlier and then Coach showed the trust he had in me by giving me the ball again. But it’s not about me. It’s not selfish. We wanted to get the win as a team, but we fell short as a team. We have to keep our heads up and keep moving.”

Hill and De’Veon Smith, who led the Wolverines with 60 yards on 21 carries on Saturday, each have 10 rushing touchdowns this season. They are the first tandem with double-digit rushing touchdowns since 2013, when Fitzgerald Toussaint had 13 and Devin Gardner scored 11.

Clutch kicking: Kenny Allen hit a 28-yard field goal in the second quarter and a 37-yard field goal in double overtime for the Wolverines. He also averaged 47.4 yards on seven punts, including a long of 67.

“When my name is called upon, I have one job, so go out and do it,” Allen did. “I know we didn’t capitalize on every single punt. The team fought hard today. I’m proud of them. Like Wilton (Speight) said, we lost and we had chances to capitalize where we didn’t.”

Briefly: Fifth-year senior wide receiver Amara Darboh led the Wolverines with eight catches for 68 yards and a touchdown. He surpassed the 2,000-yard plateau for his career and now has 2,026. He has at least one reception in 32 consecutive games, tying him the fourth-longest streak in school history with Marquise Walker (1998 to 2001).

Contact Mark Snyder: msnyder@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark__snyder.

Contact George Sipple: gsipple@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgesipple.

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