Michigan vs Alabama football grades: Defensive masterclass in bowl

On January 1, 2025By Littum

TAMPA, Fla. − Free Press sportswriter Tony Garcia rates Michigan football on an A to F scale after the Wolverines’ 19-13 win against Alabama on Tuesday in the ReliaQuest Bowl:

Offense: D

This is rated on a curve given that UM was operating with an interim offensive coordinator (tight ends coach Steve Casula) and did not have its top two rushers (Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards), top two pass catchers (Colston Loveland and Tyler Morris) or its starting left tackle (Myles Hinton).

Still, this was a tough performance. The defense started the offense inside Alabama territory four times in the first quarter, and UM managed just one touchdown. Three times Michigan started inside the 20, and instead of pulling away, it was still just 16-0 after the Tide gave away its first four possessions.

The running game struggled quite a bit. UM had just one carry of more than 13 yards and finished with 51 rushes for 115 yards (2.3 per carry) on the afternoon. The passing game was no better. Davis Warren completed 9 of 12 passes for 73 yards and one score before leaving the game with an injury in the third quarter, and the passing game really stopped when Alex Orji came in: he completed 2 of 3 passes for 2 yards and an interception.

Outside of Fred Moore, who caught three passes for 37 yards, no one had more than 10 yards through the air.

Defense: A

It was another Wink Martindale masterpiece and this one started early. Playing shorthanded, without three projected first-round NFL draft picks and two other starters, UM’s defense still stifled the Tide early. Michigan forced a turnover on downs on the first drive, Derrick Moore fumbled on the second, Wesley Walker came away with an interception on the third and Cam Brandt had a strip sack and fumble recovery on the fourth.

Alabama’s first six drives yielded just 2 yards, and although the Tide gained 171 yards and 10 points on the next two drives, UM’s defense stepped up again in the second half. Brandyn Hillman added a sack to cap a drive, Ike Iwunnah finished another with a sack on third down and UM would force two more turnovers on second half downs.

UM’s defense held Alabama QB Jalen Milroe to 16 of 32 passing for 192 yards for a touchdown and an interception, while the Tide had just 68 rushing yards as a team (2.3 yards per carry). The unit had six tackles for loss, five sacks, four pass breakups, three quarterback hurries, two forced fumbles and an interception while holding Alabama to 13 points, its second-lowest output of the season.

Special teams: A-minus

Without outstanding special teams, UM would not have won this game and it got another outstanding game from the best player on the unit, kicker Dominic Zvada.

The junior tied a ReliaQuest Bowl record with four field goals, and while none were his signature deep balls, each meant a lot. Zvada connected from 45, 37, 30 and 21 yards on his four attempts and also made an extra point as he single-handedly scored as many points (13) as Alabama’s team.

In addition to that, Hudson Hollenbeck was solid in the punt game. He had six punts for 277 yards (46.6 yards per attempt), which included a long of 69, two that put Bama inside its own 20 and one inside its 5.

The only downsides to the unit were a kickoff out of bounds to open the game and a long punt return allowed in the fourth quarter, but neither ended up making a difference.

Coaching: A-minus

For the second game in a row, absolutely nobody gave Michigan a chance, but once again Wolverines was the better team on the pitch from start to finish.

Credit for the coaching gem goes all the way around, but it starts with Sherrone Moore for getting her team to buy in despite missing half the starters on both sides of the ball. Next, it’s down to Martindale, who figured out how to connect with this team and get his defense to understand what was being asked of them. Last but not least, Casula came in as interim offensive coordinator, and although he lost Davis Warren in the third quarter (essentially rendering the passing game useless), he leaned on Jordan Marshall (who turned out to be the best player on offense ) to grind out the win.

The staff set the tone for the season-ending victory, now it heads into the offseason with incredible momentum.

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Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.