2019 Michigan Gameday #13: vs. Alabama (Citrus Bowl)

It's 2020 (happy new year!) and I have no idea what a VRBO is, but that doesn't matter since I get to enjoy watching my Wolverines play one last game as part of the 2019 season.  While it may not be the Grandaddy of Them All, today's game, the Citrus Bowl, is being played on January 1, unarguably the best day for bowl games.  You can have your national championship game on February 20 or whenever it is--I'll take New Year's Day any time.

This will be Michigan's fifth appearance in the Citrus Bowl, played in sunny Orlando, a place I wouldn't mind being right now.  As things currently stand the Wolverines 3-1 there, beating Arkansas after the '98 season, Auburn after '99, and Florida after 2015 (coach Jim Harbaugh's lone bowl win to date) and losing to Tennessee at the end of the 2001 campaign.

Michigan's opponent today will be a 10-2 Alabama team that lost those two games by a combined eight points to LSU, who's in the title game, and at Auburn in a matchup they dominated statistically.  It promises to be a tough day for the 9-3 Wolverines who looked strong at times this year but had difficulty with the best teams on its schedule.  The 2012 regular season opener against the Tide, a 41-14 Bama victory, is a good reminder of how overmatched Michigan could be today.

Then again, nobody should forget the Orange Bowl matchup from 20 years ago today, when Tom Brady led the team back from a 14-point deficit only to see a last-second game-winning field goal get blocked.  Still, Brady managed to hit TE Shawn Thompson with a beautiful play-action pass on the first play of OT, and when Bama responded with a TD of their own but missed the PAT the Wolverines were victorious.

Michigan's bowl record certainly has room for improvement at 21-26 (and 3-7 in their last 10), and to be honest I don't see that getting any better today against an NFL-ready Bama team that wasn't far from yet another playoff appearance.  The 7-8 point line is probably far too generous for this overmatched Wolverines team (which is also down a couple defensive players) hoping to go out on a high note.  But you never know, and regardless I'm happy to be rooting on my alma mater one more time this season.  Before we look ahead to the 2020 season let's celebrate 2019 one last time.  Happy Blue Year!

LET'S GO BLUE!